Friday, June 17, 2011

Ambyopia Update: The Good News...and the Bad News

So, Isaac had his 2 month checkup today to assess how his left eye is doing.  He has amblyopia ("lazy eye") and has been patching his good eye 6 to 8 hours a day for 2 months to encourage his left eye to start working. 

Results were phenomenol.  The eye doc was hoping that he would improve 4 lines on the eye chart (to about 20/100) and he moved SIX lines. So his left eye, with glasses, now reads at 20/60.  He started at 20/150 so that is incredible improvement.

I am SO proud of Isaac.  It is not easy to wear a patch most of his waking hours but he is doing it like a champ.  And it is paying off.

The bad news (though in some ways it is good news) has to do with our sweet Angela, age almost 4.  The doctor strongly encouraged that we check our young ones for ambylopia because it runs in families.  And you guessed it, she has a problem. She has what is called bilateral amblyopia, which means both eyes are not focusing correctly.  She needs glasses and will need to wear them very consistently. 

We would have preferred that she not have a vision problem, but are SO glad we caught it now.  She doesn't see particularly well either near or far and glasses will help when she learns her letters, watches videos, runs around, everything!

We are so thankful that the Lord led us to figure out Isaac's problem and now we know about Angela as well.  We'll check Sarah in 2 months.

No comments: