Bella’s Pediatric Ophthalmologist Appointment

Today Bella had her pediatric ophthalmologist appointment.  I’ve been really anxious leading up to this appointment.  In March, the state came to the public schools in our district and did an eye exam for the kids.  Bella passed with both eyes, but did not pass with her left eye.  I took her to my optometrist thinking she needed glasses.  While we were there, the optometrist looks at her left eye and he said:

“Why Bella…you have such a unique eye”

My heart dropped when I heard that.  I just knew he meant that in a “there is something wrong here” way.  I was right.  He called me over to see what he saw.  I saw something, but I had no clue what I was seeing.  He wasn’t 100% sure either because he didn’t have the proper tools to determine what it was (since he was just an optometrist).  He told me it was one of two things…either a membrane on her eye that did not dissolve before she was born or a congenital cataract.  To say I freaked out inside would be an understatement.  He could tell I was freaking out and he told me to just make an appointment with a pediatric ophthalmologist.  So I did.

Pediatric Ophthalmologist Appointment

Today was that appointment.  It became apparent very quickly during the appointment that something was up.  They patched her right eye for her to read the eye chart and the patch was lifting away from her eye a bit and Bella took the opportunity to turn her head a bit so she could read the chart with her right eye, when she was supposed to read it with her left.  After lots of tests and dilating her eyes, we were given good news.  It was not a congenital cataract!  What she had was a small piece of membrane that did not dissolve before she was born.  Since it’s not in the center of her pupil, the doc said it should stay where it is.

What was the Outcome of her appointment?

While we were given good news about no surgery, we did find out that she was not really using her left eye very much.  Because she has some nearsightedness and slight astigmatism, the doctor wants her to get glasses.  Basically the hope is that if we make the left eye see as well as the right eye, she will start using it.  If she doesn’t, she runs the risk of the eye not developing full the way it should and the brain will not send signals to it.  So from now until August we are going the glasses route.  When we see him at the end of August, if she is not using the left eye more, we will then have to patch the right eye to force her to use the left.  I hope she does not have to go the patch route.  Kids are mean.  I don’t want people making pirate noises at her.

Time for Glasses!

So we went shopping for glasses.  Now I told you how our previous shopping experience went…she has become quite the diva with things like this.  But I do have to say…Bella knows what she likes and when she put on glasses she didn’t like, she lets you k now it!  Check out some of the glasses she tried on:

So…which one did we go with?  None of those!  Though her favorite out of that set was the bottom right.  Here is what we went with:

My Little Fashionista!

Yes…you read those frames right.  My six year old daughter has Juicy Couture glasses…and here’s the best part, they cost me less than $10.  I may not be overly enthusiastic about our medical insurance, but our vision insurance rocks!  These are the glasses she fell in love with and kept going back to.  Once I found out they cost me so little because of my insurance, it was a no-brainer to go with what made her happy.  But man…I’m jealous!  These are absolutely adorable!  I will post a picture of her in them on Monday when we get them.

So tell me…do your kids where glasses?  Has it been a rough transition?  He told us she doesn’t have to wear them at soccer.  So far, Bella has been pretty tolerant of everything she’s had to deal with (egg allergy, dairy allergy, etc).  We’ll see! One tip if you have to go to a pediatric ophthalmologist appointment is to take books or something to do. The appointments are so long!