Today we finally got to take the Kiddo in to see our "second opinion" eye doctor. I am not sure how many of you remember the last eye doc visit, and how frustrated I was with it all. I'll do a really brief back story for anybody who missed it (with links to older posts included if you're bored and confused enough to go read back story *chuckle*)...
The Kiddo has optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH link in side bar) which basically means that when he was born the optic nerve (which is what you use to see) was severely underdeveloped in his left eye. He sees very well with his right eye but with his left he can really only see with the peripheral, the central vision is non existent. About three months ago we took him to an opthomologist who told us we should patch his good eye so that he works his bad eye harder and hopefully improves his vision. After about a month of that we went back and were told it was helping and to keep patching. The whole thing didn't really jive with what I know of the ONH so when we found out there was a pediatric opthomologist who is the leading expert on the condition in Utah, we set up an appointment with him. Till then we continued (for the most part) to follow the other opthomologists orders to patch the Kiddo.
Today was the day when we finally got to go to the new doctor. It was a two hour visit as they did all the usual vision tests, including dilating his eyes. He was amazing with it all (as is usual for him).. when the assistant was doing the preliminary vision check he stole her heart. She put up pictures on the far wall (vs letters like they do for adults) and asked him what he saw. He paid close attention and named them all quickly with his right eye. When she covered the right and had him use his left he tried his best to name them but after four or five pictures he got frustrated, rather then throwing a tantrum or getting mad when she asked him what the next picture was of he very sweetly said "you tell me." I admit it, I laughed out loud.
When she asked us who our normal eye doctor was and we told her she acted shocked and said as far as she knew that doctor wasn't a pediatric doctor!! She told us to make sure we double checked with the doc when he came in to see the Kiddo though just in case she was mistaken.
She was not mistaken, the doc told us that he knew the people at that office and that no they were not pediatric eye doctors. I was so mad, I had asked on two separate occasions to make sure that they were and was told both times yes. My mom makes a very good point that they probably had general training in the pediatric vision area before they went to their field so probably in their heads they ARE trained for peds (not that she isn't equally annoyed that they weren't self aware enough to know that our Kiddo needed somebody with more specialized knowledge then they had).
At any rate the end result is that we don't have to patch his eye anymore. Really we never did. The plus to having done it is that we know we reminded his brain to use what little vision that eye gives to help him see. And ultimately there is no negative consequence to having done it aside from the temporary discomfort (which the Kiddo wont remember).
I'm so glad we decided to follow our guts and get a second opinion. It's a good feeling to know that sometimes instinct is a good thing to listen too and when you feel like something isn't quite right then go ahead and check it out.
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