If you’ve been reading my site for awhile, you may remember that when Hayley was a baby, she had a condition called Strabismus. In simple terms, it meant that her right eye crossed in, waaay in. We treated it by using a patch on it several hours per day, and then she had a surgery to correct it at the age of ten months. It was much better but not perfect, and they did another one for her at age three. Her eyes were nice and straight and the only time they would turn in a bit was if she was really tired, and even then I think it was more noticeable to us just because we knew to watch for it.

Prior to the first surgery, she was given a prescription for glasses, and good lord a little baby in teeny little glasses is adorable. Check her out at seven months old:

After the procedure, she no longer required them. However, the other day she mentioned that things sometimes looked a little fuzzy. George also noticed that her eyes looked a little unfocused from time to time. Her class is mostly laid out so that the shorter kids are in front (which makes sense) and with Hayley inheriting George’s tall person genes, she sat in the very back row. I asked her if she could see the board and she told me that sometimes it was hard.

I wish she had told me sooner if she was having problems, but regardless of that, I immediately called our eye doctor at the hospital. The earliest they could see us was in May (!), so I took it anyway, along with one for Breanna who has never had an eye exam. Still, I didn’t want to wait that long, so I also called Lenscrafters and booked an appointment for Hayley next week. If there’s any sort of real problem, they’ll refer us back to the hospital anyway (which is why I kept that May appointment), but if it’s just that she needs glasses now, we can get everything taken care of sooner rather than later.

Hayley is eager to have her vision fixed but she asked me if she would look strange in glasses. Ah, the joys of getting older and being in school with other kids – that’s the sort of question that never would have crossed her mind once upon a time. I assured her that she would look very nice with glasses. It’s a tricky step for me since I personally hate my glasses and prefer my contact lenses. George and I explained that I don’t like MY glasses because they’re really old – the anti-reflect coating is partially worn off which makes it look cloudy when I look through them and it bugs me. I told her that I plan to get some new glasses soon and then I’ll probably wear glasses and contacts equally. I also showed her pictures of other young kids in glasses, showing her how nice they look.

I do hope that it’s just a simple matter of glasses. When you’re sitting at the children’s hospital, waiting for surgery to finish on your kid, it’s just a whole ball of stress. I would see other kids who were obviously very seriously sick or I’d chat with another parent who was waiting for their child to finish a major surgery (such as the mother of a young boy who had a perforated intestine and bowels and it was like some 7-hour procedure), and I would remember that at least eye surgery wasn’t quite that scary, but no one ever wants to have their kid put under, so glasses would be a much better solution. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

Plus, if she has glasses, I’m hoping that maybe it will allow her to better see the mess that she makes and that it will make it easier for her to CLEAN UP after herself a bit. What? They don’t make glasses for that problem? Well, I can hope, right?

RIGHT?!

(The photo above shows Hayley with the mummy she made out of clay and t-shirt strips since her grade one class is studying Ancient Egypt. I never got to study Egypt in grade one, she’s so lucky!)