Today, I took the kids to visit Dr. Collins for their progress check with their glasses. To my surprise, Dr. Collins had moved out of the GBMC Eye Clinic into her own office down the hall. It was so nice and quiet and calm as compared to the zoo of the Eye Clinic!
When we were called, Elektra put on her best charm, and happily ran to sit in the exam chair! Therefore, she had her eyes examined first. No need for big brother to show her how it's done!
Elektra did great with the depth perception test (in fact, she wanted to keep the purple glasses on... What a stylista!), the red/green test, the test where she has to track an object, and the eyes are not crossing test. She also had to name shapes (we've been practicing at home!) of different sizes to gauge her sight capabilities.
The result: Elektra is reading about 20/40 in BOTH eyes! That means the glasses are working because before she got glasses, her left eye was not seeing to the same level as her right! And, this is better than what some three year olds can see! Starting her with glasses this early is a huge win for her.
The comic relief during Elektra's exam was as not only how outrageously charming Elektra was being, but also that DJ would yell out the answer at times. Oops!
To keep Elektra occupied during DJ's exam, I pulled out the secret weapon.... The iPad. We didn't hear one peep out of her!
Meanwhile, DJ did great with the initial depth perception tests, but you could tell he was playing/not paying attention as we asked him to do more. Red/green test was no issue, but DJ asked for "no flashlight" to be shined in his eyes. Don't know why he balked that that....but bless Dr. Collins because she obliged him.
When it was time for gauge his sight capabilities, he was asked to name 4 letters on a page to test to make sure he knows his letters. I nearly died when he named 2 of the 4 letters incorrectly... I know he knows his letters, but he was making it clear he didn't want to do it!
We covered his strong eye first, and he didn't make it past 20/40....worse than in previous appointments! He was really pushing limits. I tried bribes, pleading... Nothing worked.
We switched and covered his weak eye, allowing hook to see with his strong eye. He got down to reading 20/25, I think, and he did it with fairly little fight, actually, now that I think about it.
Result: the glasses alone are not working as hoped for DJ. Therefore, 3 days in a row each week, we are going to put a drop of Atropine in DJ's strong eye to blur its vision capabilities. This will force him to use the weak eye, and hopefully bring it up to speed, as it were. There are other side effects (pupils dilate so some sun sensitivity, maybe), but I want to take no chances that the corrections we are trying to make won't work!!
He goes back to Dr. Collins in 3 months to see if that is working. the alternative is to have him wear a patch on the good eye 1-2 hours per day, but this assumes he'll a) leave the patch on b) he would wear the patch in the mornings when he is freshest and c) someone can watch him all the time to make sure he doesn't take them off or he doesn't cheat.
I've chosen the fight to put a drop in his eye every morning instead of the patching fight. Hoping this works!!
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