four eyes

Alexander's Daddy asked a while ago about Henry's glasses. Bill and I both wear glasses, so it was always in the back of my mind that Henry would be likely to need them. Every visit to every doctor has always been very trying on Henry and on me, so I put off the ones that seemed put-off-able, like the eye doctor.

But last summer I figured I should bite the bullet, before school started. Our experience ended up being lengthy, but very good, thanks to one smart move on my part, and some dumb luck.

The "smart" thing I did will seem simple to all of you: I talked to the doctor about Henry before-hand. I used to have this sort of defensive feeling that nothing was "wrong" with my son and I should not need to prepare anyone for spending time with him. (That attitude led to a very brief and unproductive dental visit.) So at my annual eye exam I talked to my doctor about Henry. He recommended that Henry see the newest doctor in the practice, fresh out of school. (Honestly, I think they push off the difficult patients on the "new guy." But this turned out to be the lucky part.)

This young woman had worked in the office ever since she was a teenager, so I knew her. I told her that Henry was typically very resistant to doctors. She told me that there were many ways to try to get a look at a child's eyes, even if he won't sit in a chair and read letters on the wall. She said that she would get as much information as she could, and if we needed to come back again at a later date we would do it that way.

I made an appointment and tried to talk a lot ahead of time about what Henry could expect at the eye doctor. I also bribed him with the promise of the library after the exam.

This doctor (Dr. L) was just awesome. Maybe just because she was young and naive! But she was enthusiastic and up to the challenge. And I believe she comes from a large family and I know she had been a lifeguard at the local pool for several years, so she's great with kids. Henry loved her. He did start resisting her requests after the first few minutes. At that point I suggested that I leave the room, as he often performs better when I'm not around. So I left the room and stood with my ear pressed to the door! I didn't hear any squealing or shouting, just lots of encouraging talk from Dr. L.

Then she came out of the room and said that she had put the drops in, to dilate his eyes, with no protest from Henry! Huh? At the end of the day, she felt that he did need glasses, and also had a lazy eye. She wanted us to come back and see another doctor to confirm the prescription, and wanted Henry to start wearing a patch on one eye, 2 hours a day.

After the second visit they ended up referring us to another doctor, one of her instructors at the university who specializes in kids. (He had Finding Nemo playing in his examination room- how brilliant is that?! Easy to get the kid to focus on something, etc.)

All three doctors concurred on a prescription, so we finally got the glasses. They also decided that, because both of his eyes "drift", there was no need to continue the patch on the eye. Yippee!!

There were still more appointments ahead, to select frames, then try them on once they arrived (we had to order an extra-small size for my little man), then to finally pick up the finished product. Because his language is so limited, I was worried that this prescription would be totally wrong and Henry wouldn't even know, or be able to tell me. But I did quickly notice an improvement- when I would ask him to go grab his shoes or something, he seemed to head right for the item, when before he would kind of wander around aimlessly.

I posted that day about some of the things Henry was saying. He didn't like the glasses at first, but aside from some verbal protests, didn't really FIGHT with us about them. After a couple weeks we did not have any objections from him. And now he does say that his glasses "help me see better." And they look so darn cute...

So, it was not an easy process by any stretch of the imagination. But I felt more at ease from the beginning, and I think Henry did too, because I had better communication with all parties, from the beginning.