Russia

Russia
We went to Yekaterinburg

Monday, April 26, 2010

Busy Few Weeks...and the Eye Doctor

Ok. We have been quite busy. Our little man is soon to turn 3, on Wed the 28th. I can't believe it. We have a small celebration tomorrow at the library where Colby and I go every Tuesday for story time. So cookies, a craft, and books for his friends tomorrow. Wed we will have his favorite dinner and a little cake just the three of us. On Saturday my family will be coming over to celebrate all the April and May birthdays. Colby, my brothers Chris and Keith, my brother-in-law Jeff, and mine. Last Saturday we brought Colby to Mystic Aquarium for part of his birthday present. We went there and then walked in downtown Mystic to see the boats on the river. He loved that! And yes, promise a post on that with photos!

Today however, Colby and I spent the morning at the eye doctor. When we adopted Colby we were told they thought he was nearsighted. Ok, we promised to check it out. I had noticed, and a few family memeber also noticed, that his left eye seemed slightly "lazy". When he looks at you sideways, it seemed to almost disappear. I wanted to wait a little while to check it out, at least get him a little older and a little more cooperative. So we went today. So...how did it go?

Mommy was a little nervous to go. I knew there was a slight problem but I didn't know what we could do to fix or help it. After 2 hours at the doctor....yes, there is a lazy eye.... his eye muscles didn't develop, part of being a preemie. He will need a patch to help strengthen his left eye. That won't be for a month though. First, eye glasses. Yup. His eyesight is really not good in his left eye so we need eye glasses to help correct that. However, the weak muscles and poor eye sight are most likely due to the scarring on his optic nerve. Not sure what that means but I think it is from being a preemie also. As a preemie, the eyes aren't fully developed and there may be a problem with the eyes. His scarring can't be fixed but hopefully with the eye glasses, a patch, and yes...surgery was mentioned somewhere down the road, my little man will be ok.

It is truly amazing though how he has adapted already though. He points out things far away in the car. He has used that right eye amazingly well. Now I just hope we can get that left one working well. So, nervous mommy is now a little sad mommy but hopeful that the doctor can help us. They were great with Colby and he was a real trooper. He sat so well for all the exams. My big boy! But he will definitely look like his Daddy now. I'll post some before and after and let you judge for yourself when we get the glasses. But does anyone have any suggestions on how to keep them on his face? He likes his sunglasses and playing with mine or Mike's but only wears them for a second or two. Ugh! Here come the battles. How do glasses stay on 3 year olds?????

6 comments:

Mama Fish said...

email Becky- at Controlled Chaos. Andrew had glasses and a patch too, at 3 years old. I know she would have a lot of great advice. :-) Her blog is on my sidebar.

Happy Birthday to Colby!

Lindsey Carney said...

You can also e-mail my friend Cydil, her blog is www.waggoner.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday to you and Colby :)

Christine and Stephen said...

Melissa:

Happy Birthday to you and Colby!!

No suggestions on how to keep the eye glasses on but I will say that 2 friends through WHFC who adopted from Brysank their children had lazy eyes and wear glasses and are doing great!!!!

I hope you get some good tips for keeping them on Colby!!

Mama Fish said...

Hi Melissa- Sorry about that, she changed her name and it's still listed on my blog as the old one.

Blog is http://russianpeanut.blogspot.com/

Hope that helps!
Jackie

Michelle said...

Happy birthday to everyone in your family!!

I was a nanny for twin boys born at 24 weeks. One had no vision problems and one needed glasses from the time he was a baby. When he was little, the glasses would not stay on for more than a half second! As he got older, he just accepted them! He just turned 5.

I don't advocate for kids watching a a lot of tv, but if Colby has a favorite show, you could start by having him wear the glasses(or patch) then! Transitioning him little by little and making it fun can help!

I babysat for a set of triplets also (who were preemies) and one of the boys had a lazy eye. His mom started by patching when he watched a show, and he eventually accepted having his eye patched and she could leave it on longer and longer.

Good luck!!!

Malissa said...

Happy Birthday to you all!

Sounds like it is time to play pirates at your house. Hopefully, the glasses will make a difference, and he will want to wear them. You could try telling him they are big boy glasses. He is so cute!