We had been struggling for a few weeks with Jackson refusing to wear his glasses. Like, ripping them off as soon as we tried to put them on. To be honest, it's never been easy to get him to wear his glasses for long periods of time. He is two, so I realize that will factor into it but I had hoped that by having them for over a year now he'd be more used to them. I had thought this most recent bout of "I'm-not-gonna-wear-them-you-can't-make-me" was just like all the rest, but it turns out I was wrong.
We had a regularly-scheduled follow-up with Dr. Markowitz at OcuSight Eye Care Center in the middle of June just to see how Jackson was doing wearing his glasses and to check on his astigmatism.
Allow me a minute or two to provide you with some background. It was suggested by one of his therapists to get Jackson's ears and eyes tested in late 2011/early 2012 to see if either could be causing his developmental delays with regards to tracking. His ears checked out fine, so he's obviously ignoring me when I tell him "No, please". :P
When we met with Dr. Markowitz for the initial consultation it was discovered that Jackson has astigmatism in both of his eyes. He is neither near-sighted or far-sighted, it's just that his vision is a little blurry overall. We were told that this is not related to his Spina Bifida or Hydrocephalus. There had been some concern that the increased pressure in the brain due to the Hydro may have caused some optical nerve damage, but that was not the case at all.
We've often been asked how the doctors know whether or not Jackson needed glasses or how they knew what prescription he needs. I explained it a little bit in a prior post. So, go here to read a little bit how Dr. Markowitz determined Jackson's prescription. You can also go check out this link which does an excellent job of describing what happens during a children's eye exam.
And fast-forward back to the present. This appointment actually provided a very good reason as to why Jackson had been refusing to wear his glasses. His eyesight has gotten better!! While he still has astigmatism in both eyes, he needs a weaker prescription. At some point I could go into the details of his eyeglass prescription as I actually did do a little research on what the acronyms and numbers and such meant. But for now, let's just rejoice in the fact that what little amount of time Jackson actually did wear his glasses helped and he now needs a weaker lenses. Woo hoo!
We went and picked out some new frames at Empire Vision and picked them up a couple days later. While I'm grateful for the insurance coverage we have, I'm extremely disappointed in the selection of frames for children. But, we ended up finding a frame that I think will work for Jackson. We opted not to get them fitted with cable temples this time. Cable temples are the little hooks that go around his ears. He's at the point now where he can put on his glasses by himself and the cable temples will just get in the way. We've tried out a band that goes around the back of his head to see if that will help keep them on, but no such luck. He'll still rip them off when he wants to. So, we'll keep plugging away at getting him to wear them.
We go back in December for another follow-up.
Im thinking about getting madison an eye exam soon. Im a little nervous cause she doesnt like to be touched by doctors lol. She is always saying "me eye hurt mommy, me eye hurt" Dr said it ccould be allergies or sensitivity to sun but I dont know I kinda wanna have them checked anyways.