Four Eyes are Better than Two

In August I made the boys' annual eye appointments.  I decided to switch eye doctors because I was tired of driving all the way across town, when there is an optometrist just down the street from us that (according to my friends) is quite good.

So off we went to the new eye doctor.  Aidan went first (Aidan always has to go first, because Quinn is less than fond of doctors) and I noticed that the doctor was being very thorough with his exam. I was thinking how strange it was that this doctor was doing a bunch more tests and different exams that our previous doctor never did. I chalked it up to the fact that this was the first time we'd seen him so he was paying extra special attention.  Aidan's appointment was fine and he hopped out of the chair as the doctor told me that his vision is A-OK.

Up goes Quinn. He was a bit squirmy, but other than that he was doing quite well.  Then I noticed that the doctor was taking even MORE time with him and making him re-do certain tests.  Hmmm... something strange was going on.....


After a while the doctor turned around and said to me:  "Did you know that Quinn is quite farsighted?"  HUH?!?!?!  PARDON?!?!?!  "Oh yes," he continued, "and his left eye is significantly weaker than his right eye."  Thankfully I was sitting down, because otherwise I'm pretty sure I would have fallen down.

Turns out Quinn can't see things up close (which would explain a lot of things about him!).  AND, his left eye was more that 6 times weaker than his right, so his right eye was overcompensating and doing all the work.  Oh yeah, and if we don't do something by the time he's 8 his eyes won't recover and there would be a strong possibility that his left eye would become a lazy eye.

Well, needless to say - I was floored..... and PISSED.  I took Quinn to the eye doctor last year and he said that everything was fine.  Well guess what:  everything is NOT fine!  What would have happened if I had gone back to the old doctor?  Would he have picked up on it or just given us a clean bill of eye health?  I was LIVID.

But, being pissed isn't going to do anything to help Quinn's eyes.  So we started putting a 'Pirate' patch on his eye everyday for an hour.  We went back to the (new) eye doctor a month later for a follow-up.  Turns out that just wearing the patch improved the vision in the left eye by 2 points.  The next step:  glasses and continue with the patching.

Thankfully, Quinn was quite excited about the prospect of wearing glasses, and picked out a cool pair of Spiderman glasses.  We picked them up today, and (if I do say so myself) I think he looks quite dashing:

Here's hoping they do the trick!