Eyes, etc

At her four year checkup, it was determined that Allison's eyes were seeing differently.  Her left eye was not awful, but noticeably worse than her right.

After seeing an eye doctor, she was given glasses for six weeks and then a followup.  The followup showed some improvement, but the doctor recommended patching for eight weeks.

Eight weeks is up, and Diana just called me after her followup.  Her eyes are showing continued improvement, both with glasses and without glasses.  That's the good news.  And I need to remember that that IS good news.  The bad news is that she needs to continue patching for as long as she continues to show improvement.  Her next appointment is four months from now.  I was really hoping that patching was behind us, and it's discouraging to hear that it's continuing indefinitely.

That said, the fact that she's showing improvement means things are working, and that's the most important thing.  I just want things to work faster!

Here are some numbers:

1/2012 without glasses before patching:  Right: 20/25  Left 20/40

 

3/2012 with glasses before patching: Right 20/20 -3 (missing 3 letters in row)  Left 20/25 -2

 

5/2012 without glasses after patching:  Right 20/25  Left 20/25 -2

 

5/2012 with glasses after patching: Right 20/20  Left 20/25 -1

 

To put this all into perspective, we're starting from a position where most people with amblyopia aspire to get to.  Some people start off at 20/400 or whatever, so we really are fine tuning.