At Zoe's 1 year appointment with her pedi - I asked her about her eye and she said yes that she noticed the same thing and that she would refer us to a pediatric ophthalmologist (PO) at Riley Children's Hospital. We were referred, they called us, made an appointment for two months later (they are busy down there!)
Fast forward to Monday (Oct 10). Zoe's first appointment with the PO. A fellow (like a 4th year intern doctor) checked her eyes like 100 times with a bright light. Took notes. Doctor came in and dilated her eyes with drops. I had to hold her on my lap like a baby. She squirmed and hated it. I felt awful. Then we had 40 minutes to kill before her eyes dilated. She was not that happy about them being dilated. I notice they sting a little (when I have had to have them done myself) and then everything is really bright (kind of if you are hung over and the sun comes up in your face). So we went and got some food.
Came back upstairs. Waited for another 40 minutes (they were busy). Zoe is really not happy by this point and we are cutting into her nap time. They put a bunch of square lenses up to her eyes while I'm holding her. And somehow this tells them her vision is normal. Then they measured her eye and did the light thing again 100 times. And then had her follow a little giraffe for a while with her eyes. Then she had to look at Ian across the room for a while. And then they told us she has Strabimus Exotropia. (Strabimus meaning eye misalignment) and Exotropia meaning that it moves outward instead of inward (like crossed eyes). It is only in her left eye. And it only happens like 10 percent of the time. They said it was good we caught it early because later it can cause vision problems. They said there really isn't much we can do because even with patching the good eye to make the weaker eye straighten out - that more often than not, it gets worse. The doctor said that most kids have to patch and basically wait for it to get worse and then have eye surgery when they are 3-5 years old. I'm not going to do nothing for 2-4 years. So I decided if there is a chance the eye patch can work, lets do it. So we are doing the eye patch for 2 hours a day.
Day 1 of Eye Patch (which I am supposed to rename according to a Web site)
Monday after her nap (which was after the appointment).
I had the Nexcare patch they gave us (looks like a big tear drop Band-Aid) and the Ortopad Elites (aka the not as Band-Aid-ish, glittery girly patches).
I lay her down like I'm going to change her diaper and put the pink sparkling eye patch with princesses on her. She flips out like its a bear trap. Tears it off her face making it stick to itself making it unusable. I try again with same one anyway (because I don't know its unusable at this point). It's now got the stuck to itself wrinkle so it's easier to pull off. On. Distract. Picture (see below). Scream. Off. On. Off. Scream. Sigh. Scream. Sigh. I get the Nexcare ugly patch. Um it sticks LESS than a Band-Aid in the shower. She gets it off without even trying. I look at Ian and I put it on my arm. It doesn't even pull my arm hair. That's how unsticky these are. I smile at the fact that at least the pretty ones that I made Ian get (because if I have to stand the idea of an eye patch on my daughter, it's AT LEAST going to be sparkly those two hours a day). After all the attempts with the pretty patch and the one attempt with pointless ugly patch, I decide that I, and my daughter have had enough crap for the day and that there will be no more eye patch attempts for Monday.
Day 2 of the Patch
Zoe wakes up and snuggles me and I snuggle back because yesterday was such a long stressful day for both of us. I automatically decide during that snuggle that I'm not even going to bother with the eye patch today because we both need a day off to destress. (plus I had an appointment at the girl doctor today for myself and I knew her nap would be postponed because they only had an afternoon appointment and I didn't want to make her mad. If you make her mad, she might turn into this or this
Day 2 of the Patch, part II - Resources
I was talking to "The Skanks" (long story but its my Babycenter September 2010 due Sept 1-10 birth board ladies that were pregnant the same time I was with Zoe, we talk all the time) and LB (haha like LC from the Hills) linked me to this awesome blog post that made me cry. And then I felt like I wasn't alone anymore and I got tips and found their Facebook page and most of them have glasses but a lot of them have the patch too or just the patch. And they knew about my products and had tips on how to do this and why I should stick with it. It was really the exact motivation I needed. So now I feel better. Hopefully tomorrow, Zoe and the patch day 3, will be better. BUT according to the other patches, it might take up to 3 days and a lot of stern discipline and NO NOs before both of us (Zoe and I) get the hang of it.
Zoe's First Eye Patch Photo (from day 1 during the happy distracted time - and yes I had to totally take it into an editing program because it was dark and there was a huge giant glare on her face and she had super red eye)
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