Visit to the Eye Doctor

We saw Chloe's Opthamologist on Monday. He took a look at her eyes. Covered each one to see her reaction. The look of amazement on that man's face was GOLDEN. He couldn't believe the improvement she's showing in the use of her left eye and commented on how well she's using both eyes! He told me that he gets to know parents of his patients and usually has a good idea about whether or not they'll follow through with patching and he has a pretty strong feeling that I actually do a pretty good job of patching Chloe's eye. "Well, she's patched a full four hours a day, just like you said...?" Apparently it's uncommon for people to do the patching as instructed and he can really see the results of my perserverence. (He thinks it's not easy...and I agree!)


As I'm vigorously patting myself on the back he interrupts me to make a new order. Stop patching for one month. Yay! Wait. What? I'm immediately filled with anxiety. "What if her vision worsens again? Should I be watching for signs and what do I do if that happens?" He seemed pretty calm about it and said I could "self-patch" if I see her left eye crossing a lot, indicating that she's not using it. But he'd rather I just left it alone so he could see what happens after a month.

Have you ever had an argument and then thought of the perfect witty retort - an hour later? That's like me at the doctor's office. I always think of the best questions after I leave. Well, ok. Maybe I'm giving myself too much credit. Often times Dave and Leticia come up with the best questions but who's counting, right? After two days I couldn't stand it anymore and called the office with "their" questions. "You just said patching has helped her tremendously. Why stop? What if her eye reverts? Are we giving up potential vision improvement by stopping the patching? Can you comfort me by telling me this won't cause any permanant vision loss?" The technician called me back and did indeed comfort me. She said that our goal is to strengthen her eye so that we can eventually stop patching. After all, we don't want to patch forever. The doc needs to see how well her eye manages for a month without patching to determine whether or not we're done with it. If he sees regression we'll simply patch again. And there's no need to worry about permanant vision loss by going patchless for one month. Still, I put the patch on for an hour yesterday and tested her eye with her black and white books. She could still see. WHEW!