Well, it's that time.
After visiting the eye doctor faithfully each year from the time Samantha was 12 months old, after being told that she had an astigmatism and would eventually need glasses, it's now time.
The doctor has now declared that Sammi's eyes aren't bad, but because she's such an avid reader, now is a good time to take some of the pressure off of her eyes and get her glasses. She'd wear them when she's reading and when she's in class, to look at the board or do projects, etc. She doesn't need them in the hallways, at gym, or on the playground - just when she's concentrating, visually.
The Wiki link to astigmatism is absolutely no help. I think it may have confused me more than I was to begin with, but I think the gist of it is that because of the shape of her eye, she could have difficulty seeing close and also far...? Does that make sense?
Nah, not to me, either.
But I will say this, Samantha was awesome at the eye doctor when Steve took her last week. She let her put the drops in, was patient while she waited, didn't freak out at the blurriness (and told me, when I got home, that her eyes were "a little bit blurry."), and asked if she could get glasses. She's totally in to the idea!
You know what she balked at? The idea that she'd have to wear them on a necklace around her neck so she won't lose them. My kid hates jewelry. But I'm sure she'll get over it.
And I'm sure they'll be adorable. :-)
4 comments:
Our eye doctor says the same thing but hasn't made the recommendation yet. Cate barely allows pony tales I can't image trying to get to her keep on glasses. It is great that Sammi is into it already! She'll be adorable.
Becca, I have what is called a vertical astigmatism (most are horizontal) and I have to wear glasses for reading and whatnot. I also have 20/20 vision. The lens of my eye has an abnormal curvature. As such, certain letters look the same to me, ie P, F, T and then E,B, i, l. People's faces also look a little skewed to me so the glasses help with that. While it is a pain for Miss Sammi to need glasses and getting her to wear them, once she realizes how much easier it is to read, I think she will prefer to wear them.
As far as the astigmatism. Imagine wearing a pair of cheap sunglasses where the lenses are a bit warped. The formerly straight lines and angles of life are now a bit wavy and curves are even more curvy. It is stressful on the eyes to compensate for that when sending the messages to the brain, so wearing the glasses to correct helps the brain and eyes work more in tandem. If she really hates the "necklace" and she likes the glasses, just have hear wear them all the time. I got my first glasses around her age and rather than risk losing them, my parents just had me keep them on. It was so cool just to see clearly that I never gave it another thought.
Linda - that's a fantastic analogy - thank you!! And Anna - that's really good to know what kinds of things are a challenge to you without the glasses. I'll certainly update once we've gotten them for her.
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