Arrrrrgh!

We are blessed to have such a wonderful pediatrician. Dr. Joe talks about my kids as if they are his own grandkids. And did I mention how he offered his mountain house for Dave and I to use on our 10th anniversary last year? Anyway, Dr. Joe noticed Lucy’s ‘lazy eye’. He said she’ll probably need to see a pediatric opthomologist, just to be sure it’s a simple strabismus.

Somehow, we ended up at the general opthomologist’s office. I’m not saying it wasn’t in the plans, but a visit to the general optho was NOT in the plans. After 2 hrs, he decided we need to be referred to the pediatric opthomologist. Grrrrr!

So, after 3 hrs of testing at the ped optho, Lucy was tired of it all. And I was beginning to realize –holy crap- glasses or exercises weren’t in the realm of possible solutions. This wasn’t just a simple strabismus. Super tired Lucy wouldn’t answer the technician when they asked her for the millionth time what picture was on the screen. She was like: There’s the screen! You look at it already! When the tech left the room, Lucy said “birthday cake, horse, car, glasses" which were all the pictures up on the screen. I love my stubborn baby.

I’ll skip the near-fainting episode due to the doctor’s delivery of the news and cut right to the chase: Lucy has great vision up close. But her distance vision, especially 3D, is bad. She’s no longer using her right eye and the muscles have atrophied significantly. We need to correct it now if we want to save the vision in her right eye all together. So she’ll wear a patch for a few hrs a day. We patch the good eye to strengthen the weak one. After 2 months, we re-evaluate if it’s working. If not, she’ll need surgery. All together, it’s a 75% success rate.

Dave and I used to joke about how uncoordinated Lucy was. We’d say it was due to her large head and tiny feet. Or that simply she was going to be our brainiac, not our athlete. But really, she just couldn’t see. Yeah, I got some serious Mommy Guilt.

After calling my baby Oriental and making me feel terrible about not knowing in depth Lucy’s birth family’s medical history, I suggested sensitivity training to the nurse/tech. Only to be laughed at by my Asian friends who say this shit has been happening to them for nearly 10 yrs. Get off my High Horse and stop getting all Den Mother on them and just realize I need to educate the uneducated. (For the record, yes, I was totally The Uneducated before I got my Asian baby.)

The doctor explained that this condition is often missed in adopted Asian babies b/c their eyes sit differently than ours. Also, low birth weight or pre-term babies are more at risk for this condition, as are babies whose mothers drink during pregnancy. Lastly, family history is a major predictor in this condition. (Yes, I felt like a total ignoramous after hearing this news expained to me a little more eloquently. And yes, this Den Mother is off her High Asian Horse.)

Lucy picked out the PINK! glittery eye patches and has been pretty tolerant so far about wearing them. Jackie, CamO, Leigh and Hunter are sensitive about it all and comment on how pretty Lucy’s eye bandaids are. My little pirate is mostly interested in looking at herself in pictures with the eye patch on. But she’s ready to take it off after 3 hrs. I don't blame her. Maybe a popscicle will help.