Ashlyn Gets Glasses

At the end of January we met with a pediatric ophthalmologist for Ashlyn.  I won't lie, I had no idea what to expect.  I was nervous.  I mean, how can they tell how someone's vision is if the patient can't even talk yet??  I figured that she would probably need glasses.  Jon thought she'd need an eye patch.

There were two parts of the visit.  The first was with a nurse.  We were in a room that was really long.  At the end of the room there was a small tv that the nurse would play different videos.  Ashlyn was all about just looking around because it was a new place! New things to see! The nurse kept telling me to tell Ashlyn to watch the screen... really? Fat chance.  Haha... anyways, one thing that I thought was really neat was that the nurse pulled out this spinning light up toy.  Ashlyn was mesmerized.

The nurse asked me a million questions like "so, percentage wise, how often does Ashlyn's eye cross?"  Uh... not all the time.  Some days it's more often than others?  No idea.  Those questions make me so nervous!  What if I answer wrong?  Then you're panicking going "No wait!  I change my answer!"  would it really change anything?  Who knows!  You all know what I'm talking about.   The quesitons you just want to answer- "Maybe? Sometimes?  I don't know. Yes? No?"

When she was done we went back to a waiting room to wait for the doctor.  He called us back about 20mins later.  He asked me the same questions as the nurse.  Then he pulled out this glass paddle that had different lenses that lined it.  He would turn the lights on and off, use the spinning light up toy to watch her eyes.  Then, he put on his... oh what is it called... not a hat.. but a head piece with a light on it and special glasses.  He turned the lights off and he pointed his flashlight at Ashlyn has he moved his little paddle around to see her eyes through the different lenses.  It was painless.  Ashlyn did really well.

When he was done, he told me that she had Accommodative estropia (her right eye crosses) and she has a bit of a lazy eye.   He then went on to say that she would need glasses and that she would probably be in glasses until she was 10-11.  She might need some surgery down the road.  She may need to wear a patch for a little while too.  It felt surreal.  I knew that this was coming, but it was hard to hear.  Our little girl has had a lot of other struggles and the last thing you want to do is give her another physical ailment to overcome.
As our luck would have it, a big storm was heading our way.  I had to look up a place to get Ashlyn's glasses and there was a place that was down the road.  We got the brand called myraflex.  Basically, it's indestructible :)  Anyways, the glasses took a little over 2 weeks to get to us.  The lab they use are out of Atlanta, GA and while we were getting an ice storm, Atlanta was covered in snow.  It has been a really bad winter across the country.

Here she is in her glasses!

I can't tell you how amazed we are with how well she is doing with them.  She rarely ever tries to take them off.  She really only tries to take them off when she is frustrated when she's eating.  She used to pull on her hair, but now her glasses are there.  I thought we would have to fight with her like crazy to keep them on.  We are so thankful that she has done so well with them.  Her eye stays straight with the glasses on and then when you take them off, it immediately crosses.  It's crazy.  I'm so thankful that we were able to catch this early and that this can be fixed.

When we found out that she needed glasses we wanted to get her something special.  I looked all over the place for a doll with glasses.  I didn't want removable parts.  I wanted a cloth doll.  I finally found one on Etsy.  The shop owner was able to customize the doll so it would have the same color glasses as Ashlyn.  It finally got here today.  It would've been here a month ago, but there have been so many delays because of the storms.  The shop owner had to order the fabric special so that got delayed a few weeks because they didn't want to send it out during a crazy storm.  Anyways, it was worth the wait.  I am so thankful I had my camera ready to capture her reaction.  It was priceless!  She loved it and was all giggles!  Her elastic in her hair had just broke and her hair was all over the place :)