complicated?

[laurasnowbird]

Ughhhh! Ethan needs glasses, we think. He is closing one eye to see when he looks at things near his face. His local eye doctor tried twice to figure out his prescription, but those appointments ended badly, LOL!

So, we trekked off to the Kellogg Eye Center (THE place in Michigan, for those not from around here) and they did an excellent job of figuring out his prescription, but said that he is complicated. He has accomodative esotropia, but unlike most children with the condition who have fairly high prescriptions, (like +3.00, +4.00 and +5.00) Ethan has almost perfect vision. Blaaah, because they usually use glasses with the appropriate prescription to "fix" the eye turning inward. Their idea was to put him in glasses with almost no prescription on the top, but a fairly strong (for him, considering he has no prescription) bifocal on the bottom (+2.50).

So we get to join the ranks of those wearing glasses. I don't mind, I think they look REALLY cute on him, but it will probably be a struggle to get him to wear them.....so any and all advice is welcomed. I am concerned that he will quit using that eye altogether, and the brain will start ignoring it if we aren't successful in getting his eyes to work together. Anybody else experience this? BLAAAAH!

The good news was that he said 50% of kids with this condition will be corrected by using glasses, and not have to use them for life, and that those who are most successful are the ones with low prescription. He couldn't say how likely we were to have that outcome, because he hadn't had a child with DS with the almost non-existent prescription but eye turning in. Guess we get to be the guinea pig. There were a LOT of kids there with DS, though! It was a real treat to see all those cuties!!!

Anyway, his little glasses are supposed to be done by Tuesday or Wednesday. This should prove to be interesting!!!

I admire all of you who deal with more in-depth vision problems, cuz just this little thing has me freaking out. Like anything else that we deal with, after a couple of months this will just be part of the landscape, I'm sure, and I'll be wondering why I ever thought this little thing was a big deal.

[meghans_mom]

Laura - I remember when the eye doc told us MM needed glasses and even though it's not the worst thing in the world, I felt it was soooo difficult to deal with! I really had a hard time with it, but now it's not a big deal and Meghan actually *wants* to wear her glasses (except when they're dirty of course, but who can blame her?)
She did fling them alot in the beginning and it was just persistence that paid off.
The only thing I can say is to get the Flex-ons and extra scratch resistant coating...but since you've already ordered the glasses hopefully you did this :-D
I don't know what MM has but her eye was turning in, and she was too old to have it patched (or so said the ophth.) and we were also told she may not need glasses when she's older if we did keep up with her wearing them....but I believe it was for her far or near sightedness.
She also has a low prescription and this last time didn't need stronger glasses...but I can't remember what the rx read.
hugs, laurie

[Emilysmom]

Awwww Laura, sorry this has to be complicated! It reminds me so much of MY own eyes! For years, I closed one eye when reading anything close up. We went through all sorts of "fixes", and finally had surgery on the opposite eye.........something about weakening that muscle so they would be even?

With Emily, her right eye would roll inward when focusing on anything very hard. Pretty simple to treat, although not so simple to keep them on her in the beginning.

Susan

[CC]

Laura girl I am hopeing Ethan proves you wrong and this will just be a piece of cake Honestly when Chris was 4 he had to get his glasses and truly when the Doc told me that, I was like yea RIGHT and HOW do you expect me to get this boy to wear them Honestly I was so surprised how well he did.

The day I picked them up I just simply said pick a video you want to watch then said you have to wear these to watch it. He did, then took them off after a few and I just walked over and put them back on him without any fuss. There were a few times he chucked them but really very few. The last thing he takes off at the end of the day and the first thing he reaches for when he wakes up. So keep the faith girl
I bet Ethan will look so handsome in his new specs

Good Luck ~

CC ~

[alisonzmom]

I bet Ethan will be gorgeous ( should I say that about a little boy??? ) in his new glasses!!!

Alison started wearing glasses in January and I have to tell ya things went much easier that I had prepared myself for! She wasn't real enamored at first...... but tolerated them a little longer each day. I didn't push the issue when she wanted to take them off...... just put them back on her about 15 minutes later. By the beginning of March she would them for the entire time she was at school, about 3 hours, but would hand them to me saying "Done, thank you" as soon as she saw me. She still won't wear them for much longer than about 5 or 6 hours at a time but in her case that works out fine since she still takes a nap in the afternoon.

My only caution, keep a close eye on the glasses in the car!!! Alison tends to toss them out the window, especially when I'm on the highway! For some reason I can't figure out, she only really throws them when the window is open ( I have a 2-dr ) and has uncanny aim in getting out the window from her throne in the middle of the back seat! Go figure!

Good luck and I can't wait to see a pic of Ethan in his new glasses!

Barb

[Jessie]

Ok, so how do I contact the Kellogg Eye Center? Any doctor in particular?

I don't think Jason has any issues, but we need to get him in and somehow get an examination. Should be a blast.

I know you don't like doing it, but you may just have to share a picture of Ethan with his new glasses!


Jessie

[Chester]

We just entered the world of glasses ourselves, last month.

We did pretty much what CC suggested. The video went off when he took the glasses off. Before long he forgot he had them on.

We've regressed some now. We haven't had the t.v. on much and the glasses are off more than they are on. I'm not going to turn it into a power struggle though. I can tell that JT can notice the difference with his glasses on.

On the other hand....my oldest son could not. It was just this year that they increased the prescripition enough for him to notice. I'm not sure of the "medical term" any longer, but his one eye is lazy, but doesn't cross. His other eye is 20/20. So his 20/20 eye over compensates for the other eye and Cory didn't see any reason to where his glasses. He's got some big'ol sensory issues, so it was pretty much torture. Finally this year.........phew.

Good Luck!
Dawn

[wrblack]

Guess Ethan just has to be different. Accommodative esotropia with normal vision in both eyes, didn't know you could do that. Hope he likes his glasses and they do the job for him.
Good luck.
Bob