Goodbye, glasses!

Elsie had a check up with the opthamologist yesterday. The doctor dilated her pupils and checked her vision with and without her glasses on, and then out of nowhere, proclaimed that she no longer needs glasses. Um what?? I told him to shut up. The technician laughed. The doctor went on the explain what was going on. I will attempt to relate to you what he told me.

Apparently, Elsie's vision has improved; where she used to have normal vision in one eye and was farsighted in the other, she now has normal vision in one eye and is slightly nearsighted in the other. The reason she needed her glasses in the first place was that when there is unequal focus with farsightedness, the brain tends to ignore the farsighted image and will eventually only see out of the normal eye, creating a lazy eye. For reasons that I don't understand, the unequal focus with nearsightedness does not cause a problem with the brain. Hence, her glasses are no longer needed. He said that since we caught the initial problem so early, it was fixed with her glasses very quickly, and that we prevented her from having months and months of vision therapy. He will see her again in nine months. Chances are, she will need glasses in the future, especially with her parents' bad vision genetics, but he is hopeful that it won't be anytime soon. He also told me that he had only seen a handful of cases like this in his many years of eye doctor-hood.

I was so surprised at her not needing glasses anymore that when he asked if I had any questions, I couldn't think of anything. Of course, on the drive home, I had about 500 unanswered questions. Such as: what caused her vision to change? Will it continue to change and get more and more nearsighted? Is nine months too long to wait to check her eyes again? What exactly do you see when you wave your magic crystals in front of her dilated eyes?

As you can see, I don't really understand all of it, but I suppose I will trust that the opthamologist knows what he's talking about.

When I first found out in July that Elsie would need glasses, I was kind of devastated. I didn't know how we would keep glasses on a little baby. I didn't want one more thing to mark Elsie as different, or cause other people to stare at her. I was worried that her vision would get worse. But now, I'm actually kinda sad to see the glasses go. She is so adorable with them on. I like it when people look at her with them on, because it usually generates a positive response, like "What cute glasses on such a cute baby!" (What can I say, I love positive attention) They make her stand out, and mark her as a special baby who has overcome all the odds.

In reflection, her glasses are a visible reminder of all that she has overcome, but that shouldn't matter. I know all that she has overcome, and I don't need to look for praise and approval of others to know that Elsie is an adorable, special baby. She will still be an adorable, special, extraordinary baby, even without her glasses.

Until we see you again, so long, spectacles!