Adventures in Eye Doctoring

Last week, I received an email from Ella's school nurse asking if she'd ever been formally to an eye doctor. (She had two years ago) Apparently, Nurse E is asked frequently by those who work with Ella if she can see. Well, not quite that dramatic, but she seems to have troubles. Nurse E has checked her using two different tests, she had just been checked on an eye chart at the doctor's and has passed all of them. But hey, let's rule out anything eye-wise that causes Ella to completely disregard the lines on her page while writing. Her therapists did think it was probably a processing problem. However, if a pair of jaunty new specs could help solve at least one problem, I was game. 

I was able to get in to see the eye doctor the school nurse recommended a few days later and after school, yesterday, we were on our way. 

First challenge: making it through the car rider pick up line. My first time. What a well oiled machine! Slightly intimidating. But I did it and we were on our way! 

At the doctor's office, the fun and perky tech calls Ella back. They bond over fun hair and cool shoes and Ella starts to warm up to her. We enter a room full of various machines and Ella sits on my lap so her head can reach the machine. She's totally interested in what we're up to and then Lily is in tears. Lily is in tears?!? Oh, because Ella is sitting in *my* lap. And it all went downhill from there. 

Ella wouldn't sit with her head in the machine long enough to get measurements taken, but we eventually got some. She wouldn't attempt the other machine that would've taken a pic of her eye eliminating her need for eye drops for dilation. I got my eye pic taken...to demonstrate, nada. The tech was running out of steam trying to negotiate with Ella so we went to meet the doctor. 

The doctor was very friendly and patient. Ella wouldn't read the letters on the chart, so they assume she doesn't know all of the letters. Ignore that she can read books...we switch to pictures. Then I'm informed that Ella needs to use the restroom. We take a break that includes a pep talk/small lecture and return ready for more. Ella keeps participating until she decides not to, and then decides she will just fall asleep on the chair to avoid further testing. I have her get up to walk to get a drink and revive her, once she perks up, we attempt more examination. 

Then we get to the dilation portion. The doctor asks if she or I should do the drops. I volunteer, and rather than spend a lot of pointless time trying to negotiate with Ella, I basically put her in a headlock/bear hug and put the drops on her closed eye lashes so they fall in when she opens her eyes. Done. Im probably marked in Ella's chart as being a little crazy, but desperate times call for headlocks. We're then left for ten minutes while the drops start to work. How better to fill ten minutes in a boring room? We watch cat videos on YouTube. 

So, in the end, our appointment took 1.5 hours. We went through several stickers, and the nerves of everyone in our wake were probably shot. In sure they were thrilled when I made myself an appointment for next week (I'm a better patient, I swear!).

Conclusion? Ella's eyes are fine. No problems, no prescription, no return visit for two years. The doctor checked for swelling of the optic nerve which can happen with myelination problems. There was no swelling or evidence of any past swelling, so that was excellent. 

So, I should be thrilled that Ella's eyesight is perfect, but part of me was a little let-down. I was hoping something as easy as glasses could get her handwriting on track and solve a few of our small or large motor issues. But no. I hate delayed myelination. The diagnosis that doesn't help you form a plan of action. 

But speaking of action plans. We did sit down with Ella's team and review/rewrite her annual plan. Things are moving in the right direction! She no longer needs support in her specialists. And for the first time ever, she met a majority of her goals. The goals she's met have either been discontinued, rewritten to require more of her, and new goals set. Her team is awesome and I'm so glad she gets so much classroom support. 

Ella's working hard, doing big things. She just won't be doing them bespectacled.