Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Blind as a bat, part two

I realized just the other day that I have had a child under 5 in my house for the last 15 years or so. Ok, almost. My son was 8 when Pete was born and 13 when RePete was born. RePete just turned 6. The Marine is almost 20. But, I've had small children here for the last 13 years. It's getting old. Let's face it, I do my best work with teenagers. I'm ready for them to get out of the little kid stage.

My son was born with an eye defect that required close observation. It didn't really affect his vision, but we went to an eye specialist at Scottish Rite, nee' Children's Healthcare, every 6 months. We showed up one fine day only to be told that his vision had deteriorated from normal to "blind as a bat". He found himself, at 4 years old, in +4.5 glasses. Coke bottle glasses, to be sure. I still remember driving home with him in his booster seat, pulling and pushing his glasses up and down as he looked out the window, amazed at the difference in the world. I knew then I would not have to prod him and convince him to wear them. Now, keeping up with them was a different story. As he got older, his vision improved until he was in +1 glasses, and he finally took them off for good. Down the road he'll be back in them, but for now he's good.

Pete was put in +3 glasses when she was three, she's down to +2's now. So maybe she'll come out of them in a few years too. She dislikes herself in glasses, wants contacts, but she picked out some great frames she's happy with. For now.

So along come RePete. She's 5 and not in glasses, farther than the other two have made it. I had hoped she would luck out and not need them.
Then I noticed she was closing one eye to read. Oops. Turn out she needs +5 and +5.25 in her left and right eyes. Holy Sheep shit! She went from +.75 in August to Blind as a Bat in 4 months.

Gotta be some kind of record.

Glad I've got Vision insurance

3 comments:

Mrs. Who said...

Bless her heart...all of theirs, actually.

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year!

Omnibabe said...

Check out Zenni Optical and Goggles 4 U online. Cheap, cool eyeglasses. I'm a huge fan of both.