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Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Sarah's Eye Journey: More Anesthesia & Her First Glasses

Sarah's journey with congenital cataracts and glaucoma continues. After moving here to Virginia, we started with a new pediatric ophthalmologist, and the first thing he wanted to do was put her under so he could do a really thorough exam. 
 Off we went to the local children's hospital. Fortunately, they had an awesome playroom full of fun things to distract Sarah after the complete trauma of having her height, weight, and temperature taken. Seriously, you would think she was being tortured to death to hear the screams that come when anyone pulls out a thermometer.
 Sadly, they sent us off to an exam room to wait for another hour with no toys. Lame. This gave her plenty of time to get super sad and scared. She finally retreated to her safe place in the stroller and went to sleep while I pushed her back and forth. Poor kid. Her special elephant, who has kept her company through all of her hospital visits, was there to take care of her. On a side note, I don't know why hospitals can't handle getting gowns that are small enough for children. I think I need to do a service project and make tiny hospital gowns.
Luckily, this was just an exam and not a surgery, so she didn't have to be out very long. Her doctor came out with the good news that her cataract looked stable and her eye pressure was normal. However, he wanted her to start wearing glasses. This did not make me excited. How are we supposed to keep glasses on our two year old?
Thus began the long process of finding glasses that would fit her tiny face. I didn't like any of the toddler ones I had seen, but we couldn't find any at the normal glasses retailers that were small enough.
 One of the discouraging things while we were glasses shopping was that she literally would not wear a pair of glasses for more than two seconds. This did not bode well for the future.
 We finally found some frames we liked, and they even carried them at an optometrist's office a mile from our house. Score! It took a few more weeks to get the frames in, do fittings, order a different size, and then get the lenses made. Finally, it was the big day. I took Sarah to pick up the glasses. We put them on, and she actually left them there! I think she was surprised to suddenly have sharper vision. It was a cool moment.
 I wish I could say that she left them alone and hasn't given us any problem wearing them since, but she pulled them off as soon as we got in the car. 
 That was the night of the ward party, and she overwhelmed everyone with her cuteness.
I didn't think Sarah could get any cuter, but I think it may have just happened. Her little glasses are so cute! By the way, this is the face you get when you tell Sarah to smile. We are working hard on getting her to wear the glasses consistently, but it has been a battle. They have a removable strap that helps keep them from falling off, but she thinks it is annoying and always pulls it off. Yesterday, I caught her stashing her strap in one of Kelson's shoes. Little stinker. She will get used to them eventually. The good news is that she is doing great with her patching lately (at least most days), and she is off all eye drops right now. 

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