The one who gets it all!

You may remember that this past summer we dealt with a few weird medical things. Parotitis. Fifth Disease. etc. And, of course, Daegan was always the one. Recently, we found out (at the last dentist appt) that Daegan has a bacteria in his mouth (that some people just have and there is nothing you can do about it) that causes cavities to form no matter what. He is lactose intolerant and he inherited eczema that causes him great discomfort during the winter months.

And now...

He needs glasses.

The state requires certain grades to be tested during the school year by the school nurse with just the basic eye chart test. Mollee and Tavis both got 20/40 in kindergarten and our pediatrician advised us just to wait because a child's eyes are not fully developed until age 9. Mollee's last test was 20/25 and Tavis' was still 20/40, but he just turned 8.

This year, the school had a Dr. offer his time to do the tests for the children. Apparently, Daegan's was a struggle. He was called back three times to redo the test and when he came home that night he just knew he was going to be getting glasses (and he was happy about that). The Dr. sent us a note home recommending an exam in an office because Daegan's test was registering around 20/80. I then received an e-mail from Daegan's teacher to make sure I was aware of this result and then the school nurse caught me in the hall one day to make sure I knew. It was obvious to me that the test didn't go well.

Yesterday, was the day of the appointment. We ended up going to the Dr. that saw him at school (which wasn't required) because we were about to switch to him anyway. The results were not at all what we were expecting. Daegan is actually farsighted, not nearsighted. The reason he was struggling so bad with the eye chart test at school was because he also has a fairly severe astigmatism. Daegan can see fine at a distance (unless the astigmatism is causing problems), but his eyes are really struggling to focus on things up close. My medical lesson for the week: Farsighted and Nearsighted aren't exact opposites. With nearsightedness, you just can't see at a distance no matter what. With farsightedness, you can't see clearly what is close to you (depending on how severe your prescription need is), but with a little squinting and a lot of strain you can usually make out what you are seeing.

All kids are farsighted some until their eyes develop fully, usually at a +2 as an infant and slowly getting better. Daegan was a +4. The Dr. told me that at age 6, we can work on this problem and he may or may not deal with it as a teenager. If he had come in at age 12 with this problem the damage (severe strain) would be done and there wouldn't be much that could be done about correcting it. Without wearing glasses to give his eyes some relief, he could end up with crossed eyes or a lazy eye, not to mention, a lot of headaches.

If he didn't have the astigmatism that bothered his eye chart reading at the initial test, we probably would never know about the farsightedness. Usually, the only way to know that a child is farsighted is when their eyes start to cross. Funny how that works?

And,

I can't even be blamed for this problem. I'm a - 8 prescription, which is at the other end of the spectrum!! :)