As you know, Josh has always had issues with his eyes. During his annual exam in July his optometrist decided that adding more prisms to his lenses (which helps with the cross eyes) just wasn't cutting it and that we should go visit a pediatric eye specialist.
So today we drove down to Indy to the Midwest Eye Eye Institute. (Talk about a fun drive. I-65 (the main freeway between Indy and Lafayette) is closed between Lafayette and Lebanon, so we had to take Hwy 52 half of the way there. Plus parts of 52 are under construction. And so is all of Carmel (or so it seems), which is where the optometrist was. All of this to say - it was a pain driving there and back.)
It was a little weird at first - we shared a waiting room with some place called InterFace, which does elective cosmetic surgery type stuff (like Botox and permanent make up and such.) So we were in this waiting room with kids with eye problems (several with other disabilities) and their average, normal parents and several blond, well-endowed, well-coiffed women. The thing that really got me was that all of the these Stepford Wives were in TALL heels. Seriously. I started feeling a little frumpy, but then decided I much preferred my comfy maxi skirt and sandals.
Anyway, our optometrist here in Lafayette is pretty good, but these guys were fantastic. Just great with kids! They took lots of time on him and worked his eyes over pretty good. They even had to dilate his pupils, which I know from experience is no picnic. Josh took it like a champ!
*Side Note: it must be mentioned that while waiting in the exam room I had the sudden realization that the reason why I wasn't more stressed about this trip was because Cole wasn't with us. Isn't that crazy? Tess was there, but she was really well behaved. If Cole had been there it would have been a nightmare. (He HATES any sort of waiting. At all.) At first I felt a little guilty. But then I realized he is much more happy in Kindergarten. Which means he doesn't have to wait for appointments like this much anymore. Life is good.
So Dr. Sprunger came to the conclusion that Josh had been misdiagnosed earlier, and than he wasn't only near sighted - he was also far sighted. And that was making his poor eyes work doubly hard. This is not that unusual in patients his age, especially with optometrists who don't deal with a lot of kids. (Ours had been recommended to us for being great for kids, but he does not specialize in pediatrics. I don't think there are any optometrists in Lafayette that do.) He recommended getting bi-focals for Josh and seeing how his eyes do with them for the next 3 months. Hopefully by then his eyes will adjust and stop crossing. If they do, great, then we'll work with his lens prescription to perhaps wean him off of the glasses for good. If not, we might have to go a surgical route. Obviously, no surgery is better, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.
*Side Note: If you're interested in reading more about just what's going on with Josh's eyes, go here for more information about Accommodative Esotropia, and here for more info about Esotropia.
Josh's eyes were pretty blurry and sensitive after leaving the doctor's office. We decided to keep him home from school since he wouldn't be able to read (or really see much) anyway. We also decided that lunch at IHOP would also help him feel better. (And by "we" I mean Josh.)
Josh was pretty excited with all of the attention and double chocolate chocolate chip pancakes. But after being home for a while he's gotten pretty bored. I've offered to read to him, find him podcasts to listen to, all sorts of stuff, but he's turned it all down. He even had a tantrum about being bored, reminiscent of his toddler days. *sigh*
He can tantrum all he wants - I'm just glad we're on the right track now!
(That's a lie. I'm so over the tantrums.)
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