One week of patching and Thomas is just now beginning to complain about it (I don't wanna patch mommy")...bless his heart. We are using the sticky patches because he will peek through the others. Thomas complains when taking them off and I can see a little irritation on his skin. We are going to have to work on taking them off a little slower...hard to do with an active little guy but so far so good.

It is clear that Thomas cannot see out of his left eye unless he is wearing his glasses. He does have vision when wearing his glasses which gives me a lot of hope. I am looking forward to his ophthalmologist appointment next month to see what she can see and to move forward with his treatment. His appointment is on my birthday so I think that warrants a trip to the "Chocolate Bar"!

Thomas asked to patch yesterday as he knew we had a "patch box" (small toys and candy) and that he could have "Nintendo time". He was a CHAMP! We went on a walk and he stumbled once but other than that he did great.

This morning, he "patched" for two hours with ease and NO COMPLAINING...can I get an AMEN?

I know we are early in the game with patching but I am choosing to believe that he will do great!

Thomas wanted to try a patch on today so we gave it a shot...he only wore it for about 10 minutes and he kept saying "Mommy, I can't see you." Mercy that made me so sad. Regardless, we will press on and start patching on Monday as the doctor suggested.

Thomas was very happy to get his reward for patching...I may be on to something. :)

Pleasantly surprised and so pleased...

Thomas has been wearing his glasses for 6 days now and is doing such a good job. I would be REALLY happy if he would quit touching the lenses of his glasses...they get smudged and he will say "I can't see" and the easily panicked side of me will think something terrible has happened and all it is is a big smudge on the lenses. The little stinker!

Oddly enough I am getting used to seeing him in his glasses already. Last night he had them off for a while and he looked sooo "different."

So far so good...praise God! Patching starts on Monday!

The Patch Box

After doing a little research, I decided to make a "patch box"...a box of silly rewards that Thomas can choose from after a successful patching experience. I went to a store called Party City and picked out a handful of toys from an area where you can buy little goody bag type toys and a bag of candy to put in the box.

We don't start patching until Monday but Thomas has decided that he would like to start today...he wants at the toys in the box! We are waiting until Monday but I am praying that between the "patch box" and Nintendo Dsi we bought him this will be a good experience for him.

Our journey with Amblyopia begins!

I am starting this blog mainly to share our "amblyopia" story with others and record the story with my son...so much is forgotten as you go about your day to day life, this will help us remember.

A week ago I took Thomas to see a pediatric ophthalmologist as our pediatrician recommended. Thomas was there for his 4 year old well check visit and essentially failed the left eye side of his vision screening. I was watching Thomas as the nurse did the screening and it was clear that he was having a hard time with his left eye.

I didn't think a whole lot of the ophthalmologist appointment. I thought to myself "he may need glasses but that is not a huge deal." Imagine my surprise when I was told he had 20/20 vision in his right eye and 20/200 in his left. His right eye had done such a great job of compensating for his left that his brain had pretty much stopped "talking" to the left eye. I was shocked and devastated! I kind of went into "lets do what we have to do" mode and followed the doctors instructions to go to an optician and order glasses.

Thomas would wear his glasses for 10 days and then we would start patching his right eye for 2 hours a day. Six weeks later we are to return for a follow up visit. I scheduled the follow up visit for my birthday and we are going to go to the "Chocolate Bar" to celebrate ourselves!

We picked Thomas' glasses up on Friday and he has done REALLY well for a 4 year old who must wear glasses. They are very cute...I narrowed the glasses that Thomas tried on down to two pair and Thomas made the final pick. It was really cute but I knew he was more likely to wear them if he had some kind of ownership in the selection. It worked like a charm...Thomas loves to tell people that he chose his own glasses.

We will start patching his right eye next week...

Several people I have shared this story with have asked me about self inflicted guilt. I have none whatsoever. It makes me so sad that Thomas has to deal with this but it is what it is so we press on to the goal of helping him to see.

Our ophthalmologist told me there was no way I could have seen this coming as his left eye didn't turn in, he didn't seem to strain in any way and he never complained about not being able to see. Thank goodness for vision screenings at 4 years of age...I sure would have never thought to ask.

It hurts that there is something "wrong" with Thomas' eye, I wish I could take that on for him but I think these feelings are the signs of a mom who loves her child, not some kind of guilt thing.

You never know what resources are out there for a "malady" until you NEED to know...who knew they made special band-aid patches for amblyopia or even cool fabric ones? I ordered fabric patches with cool appliques from here: www.patchpals.com  and bought adhesive ones with cool designs on them from our ophthalmologist. Thomas will be set next week!