Amblyopia

-crazy dilated pupils-

In November Maisie came home from school with a letter stating that after a simple eye screening, they felt she needed a full comprehensive exam. I made an appointment with the doctor who had done her school check up and upon walking into the building, the staff instantly recognized Maisie. The assistant excitedly remembered her because Maisie had held open the door for her (which Maisie does every morning- she holds open the door for at least a minute every morning for the kids and parents. It always makes me smile seeing her sweet act of kindness). Maisie was extremely brave the entire time. The dilating eye drops were quite painful, but she dealt with it like a champ. After a couple hours Maisie was diagnosed with Amblyopia aka "lazy eye", but not that her eye looks off in a funny way, but that her left eye being as blurry as it is, her brain started to ignore it and therefore didn't use the eye at all. So now we need to try to strengthen her eye with patching for 6 hours a day and an extreme prescription lens (+4.25) then after the Doctor determined the course of action, Maisie was fitted with her glasses that wouldn't arrive for a couple of weeks.

The second week of December her glasses arrived and boy, does she look cute in glasses:

For awhile I couldn't quite put my finger on why I was somewhat upset about finding out Maisie needed glasses. It wasn't a vanity issue because I think glasses are darling on kids and I have plenty of loved ones with glasses, but I did feel upset. It wasn't until I started to feel emotional about it that I kind of honed in on the cause. Now I know it was because I felt guilty as her mother that I never realized sooner that she couldn't see out of her left eye. She never displayed any of the signs I have associated with needing glasses, but Amblyopia can be hard to catch and I was reassured by many friends and the Doctor that it's quite normal not to catch them until their first eye exam, which can sometimes not be done until middle school or later. So I am thankful to have caught it when we did and that we can be helping her now. While she isn't a fan of the patching, she is already having so much improvement with her left eye getting stronger and by her next appointment she will already need a less severe prescription! :)