Saturday, January 26, 2008

Blind....like Mommy!

So I get this call from the school nurse on the 14th telling me that Sammie failed her vision test twice! So off we go to her first optometrist visit.



The poor thing has 20/80 vision in both eyes due to a high astigmatism. The doctor took my glasses to read the prescription and returned with, "Yep! She has it as bad as you do!" I had no idea it was hereditary. So Sammie has been wandering around this earth for five years seeing nothing but fuzzy blobs unless the object is about a foot away from her face! We had no clue, but now so many things about her are making sense to us and her teacher.

Seeing well is too new and too much for her little eyes to handle yet, so she is only in half the prescription she needs...bringing her vision to 20/40 for now. As she gets adjusted to seeing better, we will take her back to the eye doctor in six months to test again and see if her eyes can handle the full prescription to bring her to 20/20. I think even this half prescription is making so much of an improvement for her already! I hope it will help her conquer her shyness too. At home she is a firecracker, but at school and around other kids, she is so timid and quiet. Maybe now that she can see who she is talking to better, she might not be as withdrawn. Let's hope!

Here she is with her first pair of glasses:



And here are a couple of funny things since she's been wearing them...

1. At the car wash she yells out, "Stop! That sign says stop!" Wow! She could actually make out a sign from her seat in the van and read it!

2. Later on the way to Wal-Mart she starts whimpering.
"What's wrong, Sam?"
"Scary monster outside my window!!!"
I look to my left and there is a U-Haul truck parked in a parking lot with a huge, very detailed butterfly on the side of it. She had no idea a butterfly really looked like that!
I said, "That's just a butterfly!"
She said, "No, it's not!! It's scary!"

So it will be interesting to see how the world opens up for Samantha now. I know she will have an easier time in school too. It's a big adjustment for her, but she seems to be taking it well so far, and she is excited about the things she can see now!

No comments: