With marked irritation in his voice....

Mr  L told me that he hated having to explain why he does not wear glasses anymore. Apparently most 7 year olds find the concept of contact lenses very odd and the look of their friend that was always wearing glasses also slightly weird without them.

But it has been almost 6 months of him wearing contact lenses. It has truly changed his world! He just functions so much better in any circumstance with the lens than with his glasses. I keep thinking how much easier his life, with all his challenges would have been if he did not have the eyesight problem mixed into everything else. Everything from concentration and school work to his game of rugby or judo has improved at leaps and bounds. I can not be happier for him.

We have reached a big milestone today - and I am not sure how many of you will even understand it. He wore a monthly contact lens for a whole month! In his first month and a bit he wore daily lenses - and expensive option but the best place to start. From the middle of January he has been using monthly lenses -meant to keep for a month. We have gone through 7 lenses in 4 months - one only kept for a day before he lost it. One tore after a week. It's been a tad costly. But this month he made it - kept one for a whole month!

In the meantime, from a parent perspective I can tell you that many many days it would have been way easier to just use glasses. It takes time and patience to get that lens in . Some mornings it's first time lucky - others you need a few tries with. Hunter very easily also learnt how to help L. But for us, that can see the difference it's made, there is no other option. Glasses are now reduced to sometimes Sundays to rest his eye or late in the day after homework(it does get red and irritated at times - he is only 7 and no matter how you stress it, he does rub his eyes with dirty hands).

To think, 6 months ago I knew nothing about contact lenses. Now we are all well versed veterans, including the 7 year old

If you want to know more about his sight issues and why glasses do not work - read here: bright eyes

Bright eyes.

It is our wedding anniversary today - 14 years! Wow - I am blessed to have the most wonderful man in the world as my partner on this journey called life. My heart is so full of love today that maybe I need to write about that on another day.

Who knew? Who knew that Mr L had dark blue eyes with a green inner circle? The honest truth is that for the last 6 years in his life he has permanently had glasses on and no one ever noticed his eyes. Just the glasses. Yesterday his life changed - he got contact lenses for his right eye. And its not just about convenience or looks. To him, its like having some way of normal sight and the opportunity to learn how to read successfully next year.

Let me explain - up until now he saw everything in double when he has his glasses on - in two different sizes. Not wearing his glasses would have meant totally losing the vision in his right eye. It was the only way that the doctors could keep the functioning of his right eye to give us the chance to do what we are now doing. To make a long story short - his two eyes' sight differs with 8 points - this means that it can never be compensated with glasses only. He therefore has a 4,5 lens in his glasses for his visually impaired right eye making the difference in size of objects already severe. Anything more would have made it impossible for the brain to add it into sort of one picture. The optometrist yesterday gave me a lens to hold in front of my right eye to see how he has been seeing the world up to now - I was shocked ! I would have never coped but I guess if its all you know ....He also has a third of the same eye that is totally blind towards his nose - about that nothing can ever be done.

So we came to the time in his life where we had to do this in preparation for grade 1 next year - get him to wear a contact lens or failing that a lens transplant operation early next year. I was nervous but tried to play it cool. We were sent by his Ophthalmologist to a wonderful optometrist that specialise in contact lenses and is known to be successful with kids. Apparently if the first try is a disaster you miss the chance - at least for a few years so it was critical to get this done and the right way. This is also why they wait until now especially with kids with sensory issues.

We had a long consultation, fitting of two different types and then he had one in L's eye. He told him to open his eyes and showed him a beautiful picture of a fish eagle. I wish I had caught that look on his face with the phone camera but I really did not know that it would make such a huge difference. His whole face lit up and he had a huge smile. He jumped out of the chair and danced around. Oh my heart! I shed a few tears.

After all this we had an education lesson about the do s and don't s and then I had to take the lens out and put it back in myself. It took me close to 3/4 hour to do this properly and many many tries and frustration. This morning I prepared myself for the worst- and guess what? First time lucky! I am so positive that this is going to work. That this is going to make such a difference for him. Here's wishing the best for it.

BTW I knew nothing about contact lenses until now - what a new world. And apologies if that song is now turning in your head - it has been turning in mine since yesterday when it played in the mall after we left the Optometrist rooms.

So once again he defies the odds!

Yesterday was our yearly check up at the Pediatric Ophamologist - something I go to every year with a total knot in my stomach because every year, we return 3 months later to measure the angle that the right eye "falls out" and every year we seem to miss the dreaded operation by the skin of our teeth. This year I am breathing much much easier - it seems as if his eye has stayed stable the whole year and as if he is reacting well, even better than expected to the glasses and the drops over weekends. So the great news is that we will have no operation and that he gets a lens that is a ,5 higher as the doctor thinks he is able to handle that. We have now moved from the initial -3 to a -4 and now a -4,5 (his eye is in fact -6!) So great news all round. We will be exploring the possible use of a contact lens for the eye next year.

I took my iPad along to possibly do some work while we wait (it is always a long wait there) but alas, a certain young man decided he wanted to play "Spotty horse" ( Make a scene farmyard) on my "iPerd"- his term for iPad (for the non Saffers a "perd" is a horse - so he was playing "Spotty horse" on my iHorse). He shared the game with a little girl that was also waiting and really, with over 2 hours waiting time between the doctor and the optometrist for teh fitting of  his glasses I was eternally grateful for taking it along and letting him play.  It must be the only place in the world where every kid they meet wears glasses - although wearing glasses was never an issue for him (I think because he was just a little baby when he started) it must be for those who get theirs later. There is always much talking and comparing of glasses between the little ones and the parents.

I had to smile - the doctor brought out a sheet with 10 alphabet letters for me to hold and stood at different distances, asking L to show him the letter he was holding. I did not expect him to be able to do this - not because he can not see the letters but because I did not know he actually had the skill to match so specifically (and not pictures). But he did! Faultless! Another bit of hope for us.

I also had another huge smile later at the Optometrist - as we walked in the receptionist had me completing the forms and then asked us to take a look around the frames while we waited for the optometrist. He ran straight for the colourful kiddie frames and as a pro (it is his 4th frame after all) he immediately started fitting frames and talking to himself : "Nee nie die een nie, waar's die blou ene? Die een is te klein" (No not this one, where's the blue one? This one is too small ) As much as both me and the optometrist tried to convince him that red or orange or green was cool, he was set on blue (once again) and choose a nice dark blue frame. At least a different shade and make. Photos to follow when we get it next week.

So all that done and dusted, we got home at about 5:20 after I left the office at 2:30 to pick him up. 

I am much much relieved and very thankful. So what was your Monday like?

Eish, sjoe!

Thank goodness.

Little man L had his follow up appointment with the eye specialist today. If you do not have the background about his eye problems, go have a look here. 

At our last appointment we were warned that an operation is more possible than not and that his eye, due to the blind spot, is turning inwards which will effect the spectrum of his vision. Therefore we had to go back today, after 3 months, and not after 6 months as per usual. Although there was a slight change in his lens prescription I was very anxious and almost sure that we would get the go ahead for the operation today. It turns out that from a 20 degree fall out has corrected to 12 degrees - a huge improvement, but not quite enough. It has to be 10 and below to be in the "no operation needed" spectrum. So we have drops to add now to the "good eye" once again - rending it useless for 48 hours, in order to stimulate the "bad" eye to work harder in order to correct the angle.

So we are seeing him again in 2 months time to assess the progress. Here's praying for that extra 2%. We have come so far, from not using this eye at all to making the most of it.

Meet Harry Potter Jnr

No, he has not suddenly acquired wizardly skills, he just got new glasses.

Little man L had his check up at the very brilliant pediatric eye specialist last week. The long and the short of the story is that there is no improvement to be seen, but none expected. He is still doing extremely well considering the obstacles he faces with his right eye. The doctor confirmed again that he really does not know how much he can actually see with it, but just the fact that he is using it, means that the brain connection is active and will stay and maybe keep finding ways to "see" beyond the melien overgrowth. The cones and staves in those specific area will never function.

The treatment has been adapted though - no more of the horrid drops that disabled his "good" eye every two weeks. He is also ready to try a bit stronger lense on his "bad" eye - which is now really thick (a 4 factor lens). So off we went to get his new glasses.

The truth about glasses for a very young child? The get hammered, break and have to be fixed continiously. So I was delighted to see the new Fisher Price glasses that just arrived in South Africa a few months ago. They are sturdy, light, can hold thick lenses and have nothing that can break of. Even the higes are made out of a bendable plastic. Brilliant! And I think they are quite funky and fashionale.But do you think he is going to hate us some day for making him look like this?

I also thought that I will share with you a visual of the mobile phones I had in my care yesterday:

Hunter forgot his at home, so I brought it along to answer and refer to his office number. Little man L also left his in my care when we left the office to go fetch his glasses (he spent the first part of the morning with me at the office).