New Glasses

Today was a big day for Taylor!

She got...

Glasses!!!

On January 3 Taylor had her first eye doctor appointment. At her 4 year well-child check up she failed her vision screen with 20/70 vision in both eyes! Yikes! We never really noticed that she was having trouble seeing, and she never complained about anything. The only thing we ever noticed was that she sometimes stood really close to the TV. So I took her to the eye doctor to see what was going on.

They did a bunch of vision tests with Taylor and had her tell them a bunch of different shapes from close up and far away. It was funny while she was doing the tests because she was sitting in my lap the whole time and I could tell when she was getting the pictures wrong...and she was getting more wrong than she was getting right most of the time!

They had to dilate her eyes, which she was not a fan of at all, and then we had to wait back out in the waiting room. She tried to watch TV and also tried to play her Leapster game, but because her eyes were dilated, she couldn't see anything. She was very frustrated. Eventually they called us back into the room and they did some more looking into her eyes and did some more vision tests.

After a few minutes the eye doctor came into the room to talk to us. He said that Taylor has an intermittent crossing of her eyes. He said that when she tries to focus on something, one of her eyes starts to turn in just slightly. He also said that she was extremely far-sighted, which in kids, he says means that they can't see well close up or far away. He also said that she sees blurry a lot and may see double sometimes. Another name for all this is Strabismus. I was concerned that I had never noticed this before, but he said it was so subtle that I probably never would have noticed unless I was really looking for it.

He started saying a bunch of other stuff that confused me. And then I started wondering why I was getting confused about all of this...I mean, I am a medical professionl...I should have understood what he was saying! But it all sounded so foreign and he was mumbling most of the time and talking really fast. So what I told you above was about all I got out of it!

The doctor said that Taylor would need glasses. He said she will need to wear them all the time, except when she is sleeping and doing sport activities. He also said that hopefully wearing the glasses will correct the problem and she will have perfect vision in a few years. He said this wasn't a permanent problem right now, and the glasses should completely correct the problem. He said that when Taylor first puts the glasses on that she probably wasn't going to like them because she wasn't going to be able to see very well. But he said after about a week, her eyes should start to get stronger and she would be able to see a lot better with them on. He told us to come back in April to check her eyes again and see how she is improving.

So we left, picked Liam up from Kimberly's house where he had been hanging out, and met Daddy at the Eye Center to pick out Taylor's new glasses. She tried on a bunch of different kinds. Will really liked the chunky frame ones, but it was too much for me right then and I wanted her to have something that looked softer on her face. She picked out a purple pair and I think they are super cute.

The glasses took about a week and a half to come in. They are pretty thick little lenses. It was so funny, when the lady put the glasses on Taylor for the first time Taylor looked at her and said, "Your head looks huge!" So I guess it will take some getting used to! But she was really excited to have her new glasses. There are some other kids in her daycare class that wear glasses, so she isn't going to feel different.

I think she looks pretty cute in them! And with her two front teeth missing, it is just precious! It has taken some getting used to, because all of the sudden my little girl looks so different than she did a few weeks ago. But I know with time I will get used to it! Now if we can just manage to not break them or lose them!