Glasses

Several months ago I noticed that Mikayla was squinting and pulling things toward her when she was looking at them. She wouldn't do it all the time but enough that I started to question her on what she could see.

The next month when we went to the hospital I mentioned that I was concerned about her eyes and asked if that was a chemo side effect. I was told it was not a side effect but they would test her. They did a little eye chart they had in the hall and said her vision was 20/40 and that was fine for her age.

But the squinting continued off and on. So, I called and made the appointment. While we were waiting for her appointment she went to the pediatricians for a normal physical and they also tested her eyes. They said again she was 20/40 and that was within normal for her.

That is when I began to start feeling like a paranoid mom. I considered cancelling her eye doctor appointment, but then decided it wouldn't hurt anything for her to go and be checked out.

So, off to the eye doctor we went on Monday. I was quite surprised to learn that Mikayla's vision has lots of problems. First off he noticed a pretty substantial astigmatism. Then he stated that she also had amblyopia, which is more commonly known as lazy eye. Children with this wear a patch on their good eye to make their bad eye stronger. The problem is Mikayla has it in both eyes. So the only way to fix that is to giver her a very strong prescription for both eyes.

So, we went to pick out some glasses for Mikayla. As you know she is my fashion queen so this was fun. We tried on many pairs and she looked at me and said "My we should probably get a couple pairs don't you think?" HA! NO! She picked out a very cute pink pair with hearts first thing. But I told her to keep trying different pairs. She narrowed it down to two and she couldn't decide. She looked at me and said "which pair matches my outfit better?" I laughed and told her that she would have to wear these every day, all day so she needed to find something that would match everything she wore.

So, she made her decision and I must say, she looks pretty cute, don't you think?

We weren't supposed to get them until next week (which she would have been at camp) but they came in early so we picked them up yesterday. She didn't seem to notice much of a difference, at least she said she didn't. But we tested her on seeing a few things and when she realized that her glasses allowed her to see things she couldn't see before she was pretty excited. She wore them all night last night and when she took them off to go to bed she told Brent "Wow, everything is really blurry!"

The doctor mentioned that this vision problem could have caused her problems in school. I am anxious to see if that was the case or not. She did ok in school but she did have her struggles. And now seeing what she couldn't see, it is no wonder reading and recognizing letters was hard for her!

She is pretty excited about the glasses but has made a couple comments about not wanting people to laugh at her. So, I know she thinks about it. But we tell her the glasses make her so cute no one will laugh.

Oh and in case your curious (because I was) the eye problems is completely hereditary and not a chemo issue.

Today is the last dose of oral chemo, June 12, 2009 has been written on her medical file for 2 years now. And today is that day, her official off treatment day. She will get steroids still tomorrow and then she will be done with all meds except Bactrim and troches. It is almost surreal, like it isn't really happening. But it is here and we are so very excited!

We will be busy today and tomorrow packing Mikayla up for camp. She is excited to go swimming (in the non-flooded pool!) and horseback riding and hanging out with her friends. I am excited she gets this opportunity!

Have a great weekend!

Christie