Amblyopia

A week before spring break, I got a call from the school nurse. She had performed the routine 1st grade eye exams and Sara had failed hers. So I called and made an appointment with the eye doctor for Monday morning (the first day of spring break).

Scott was traveling that day (in Minneapolis). My parents were here for a few days, so I left my dad home in charge of the other kids, and took my mom along to Sara's appointment because Sara wanted Grandma to help pick out her frames.

My mom stayed in the waiting area while I went back with Sara for her exam. Not long into it, I realized we weren't dealing with normal vision problems. The eye doctor informed me that Sara had 20/20 vision in one eye and 20/150 in the other. He informed me that she had a moderately severe case of Amblyopia, more commonly known as "Lazy Eye". He explained that because one eye couldn't see, the brain had shut that eye off, and only received signals from the good eye. He said it started at birth, but you'd never know she had it (if not for an eye exam that makes her cover each eye), because she can see just fine--just out of only one eye. The other reason we didn't catch it earlier, was because she could still track with both eyes (she didn't have the usual symptom of one eye "drifting" in the other direction). The dr. told me her prognosis was good because she could still track with both eyes, which meant the brain hadn't totally turned that eye off. He said the most important thing to do was to correct the vision in that eye and see if the brain would "turn it back on". But because that eye never fully developed (it's like an infant's eye), the best corrected vision they can get for that eye is 20/70.

So, Sara got glasses. One lens is just normal, the other has the prescription in it. And we have to go back in one month. The dr. said sometimes just getting a prescription in front of that eye is enough, and that he would be able to tell if it's working in the first month. If it's not, then we get to move on to patching or eye drops. Patching has to be done every day for 2-3 hours a day. Drops are done at the eye dr and knock out the near vision in the good eye, forcing the bad eye to take over (and they last for weeks at a time). The nice thing about drops, is that I don't have to worry about forgetting to patch, it's just done. But, because it's all the time (instead of 2-3 hours at a time and optional as to when we do it), her best near vision is what ever she has in the bad eye (making reading and school work difficult). Luckily, we are near the end of school and summer vacation will start, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. The dr said the end result is exactly the same whether we patch or do drops--that studies show the exact same outcome from both, but that most parents find the drops easier.

The other thing the eye doctor told me was that there was a strong hereditary link with amblyopia. So, the next day I took Nate and Aaron in to get their eyes checked. They have perfect eyes. And the day after that I took Owen and Josh in for exams also. Owen has perfect eyes, but Josh needed reading glasses (that he only has to wear in the evenings when reading for long periods of time). But no signs of amblyopia in any of the other kids, which was a huge relief. Now we just have to wait a month and see what Sara's eye decides to do before we take the next steps.

Both Sara and Josh are adorable in glasses.