Some Updates

When Claire was a newborn we noticed that she had what we thought was called a "lazy eye". One of her eyes turns outward a little more that the other and loses focus. My dad has the same thing. He said that his was never treated when he was a kid, then it got worse and worse. When we mentioned this to Claire's doctor she said that there wasn't anything they could really do that early and to keep watching it. So we watched and it eventually went away.

Claire at 6 weeks old.

Well, a few months ago the "eye" returned. It shows up more and more, especially when she is tired, when she is eating, or maybe bored. I mentioned it to her doctor again and this time I was referred to a Pediatric Opthamologist. Our insurance is new to the Austin area so the nearest doctor that our insurance would pay for us to see was about an hour north of us in Temple, TX.

Claire after seeing her eye doctor?

Last week we had an adventure. We left the Austin area as a family for the first time since we moved here and went to Temple. The drive went a lot better than I had anticipated and we got there in plenty of time. We checked in, they gave us a little pager (like the kind you get at restaurants) and they sent us to the kiddo waiting room, where they had "The Incredible's" playing and some toys for Claire to play with. Time past. I stared at the pager... nothing... Was it broken? The movie ended, various kids with glasses came in, sat down with their parents, then almost immediately the nurse would call them. We waited at least an hour until I had had enough and asked a nurse if they were going to call my daughter back anytime soon. She looked at me like I was being impatient and said, "Someone will be with you shortly."

A few minutes later a different nurse came in and asked, "Adams?" We were told that something had happened after we had checked in and Claire's file had been lost and we were put down as "no shows". We showed her our lifeless pager. I was ready to ask for our copay back and head home, but then I remembered it took us an hour to get there... But the nurse was really nice about it and said she would try to find us a room right away. The doctor was really apologetic too when he came in. We told him the problem and he said he needed to check and see if she could see out of that eye to make sure that the problem was muscular and not with her vision.

So he had to dilate her eyes... Not fun... Aaron held my poor baby as they put those terrible drops in her eyes. After waiting another few minutes for the drops to set in, her pupils were just about as big as they could get. Then the doctor checked out her eyes. Turns out Claire doesn't need glasses. Her eyesight is normal in both eyes. I guess most kids are somewhat farsighted to begin with and then grow nearsighted as they grow. Claire will mostly likely need glasses someday, but not until she's like 8 or 9, like her parents... But the doctor didn't even address our concern about the "lazy" eye. He said to come back in six months.

The drive home was not as fun. Claire wouldn't keep her sunglasses on, and she was tired and hungry and whiny. Noel was my hero... he slept through it all... just like a good 4 month old should. Claire's eyes remained like Puss in Boots for the next 24 hours. They say it's only supposed to last 6 or 7 hours? What's up with that? Overall I was not pleased with our trip to Temple. Luckily, in September we have the opportunity to switch our insurance. But I'd hate to start all over. What to do?

On a lighter note... here is a cute video of our adorable children. Any idea what Claire is saying to make Noel crack up so much? I haven't got a clue.