She didn't stand a chance...

Many of you have children that are/were in kindergarten. You probably also know that an eye test is required as part of the kindergarten exam. Imagine my horror when Brynlee's pediatrician says, "She really needs to see a pediatric ophthalmologist." We took her to the Rocky Mountain Eye Center to see Dr. Petersen. He was really nice and obviously loves what he does. After much asking, coaxing, begging, etc....he determined that Brynlee couldn't see any of the letters except the largest one. Not the several largest, but the largest...as in...only 1 letter on the screen the size of the Empire State Building. His exact words were, "Boy! Are you nearsighted or what?" Um... ok. He asked if she falls alot, runs into things and says "I don't know" a lot. Um...hello? She's 5!! But yes, he was right on the money.

It was amazing when they put the correct prescription on her. She lit up!! "WOW Mom!!" she said. Dr. Petersen asked her if she could read the letter now. "That's an H!" she exclaimed. Her prescription is -3.5 in both eyes. Pretty bad. But what do you expect when every member of both her parents' families have glasses? Ok...ok...some of them have elected to have laser surgery instead of wearing frames with so much glass in the lenses that a dented Michael Jackson appendage would appear where the nose should be. Anyway...she didn't stand a chance. I was a little disturbed by the early signs of possible glaucoma but there is nothing we can do at this point. They have taken an optical scan of her eye, documented her "nerve cup" something or other and will reevaluate in a year. Considering both Mark and his mom have glaucoma, we'll need to watch this.

We went to Standard Optical and picked out 2 frames; one brown metal for school and one pink plastic for play. We got them today and it was amazing. She just kept looking around the office with awe and wonder. For the next 4 hours, she was running around the car, house, lawn, driveway and anywhere else she could...all the while yelling, "I can seeeeeeeeeee!" She made comments about the "prickles" or "pokies" in the grass. I'm assuming this is the individual grass blades. She was also picking out "bricks" on buildings, the lights on the airport 2 runway and reading every word on every sign. This morning, when she put her glasses for the first time she commented on how fuzzy her carpet is. "I didn't know I had black carpet." (It's really tan with the little brown and black flecks but I know what she meant.) I am so thrilled for her and she looks so adorable. Very smart!!

So when you see her, a well placed comment on her newest accessory would probably make her day!!