My Pirate Princess
My daughter turned 6 years old on Thursday, and on Friday, a pediatric ophthalmologist informed us that she is legally blind in one eye, and likely has been since birth. She can see light and motion with that eye, but little else. Parental shock would be an understatement. I am sharing our story so that others don’t fall through the cracks like we did.
With a background in health care, I made two assumptions, in error, along the way:
i. Surely I would be savvy enough to recognize signs of vision impairment in my daughter; and
ii. The sight screening performed at our GP’s office would act as an early warning system for any problems with her eyesight.
I was wrong on both counts.
At no time was there any indication that my daughter was having difficulty seeing. In fact, she excelled at school, both in terms of her reading and her writing. Further, as recently as a few weeks ago, she passed her sight screenings (with flying colours, no less), because she was asked to cover her own eye, and obviously cheated by peeking through the tiny gaps at the base of the fingers where they meet the palm. Sneaky little so-and-so.
A ‘sight test at a fixed distance’ comprised of covering one eye at a time and identifying letters/shapes on an eye chart is important, but it is not a substitute for a formal, comprehensive vision examination by an eyecare professional. Formal eye exams, once every 12 months, are not only recommended for school-aged children, but contrary to popular belief, they are covered by O.H.I.P. The Ontario Association of Optometrists is rolling out the Eye See…Eye Learn program in Halton, Hamilton-Wentworth, Windsor-Essex, Thunder Bay and Dufferin-Peel in September 2010. This program will educate parents of children entering JK about the importance of eye health, encourage them to take their children for comprehensive eye exams, and will even provide free eyeglasses if they are required.
My daughter wears a patch over her ‘strong’ eye for 3 hours a day in order to force her brain to establish connections with her ‘weak’ eye. We try to lighten up the process by letting her choose which patch pattern to wear; today she chose the patch with the lipsticks and high-heeled shoes on it. Some days she jokes that she looks like a pirate princess. That's my girl. We are hopeful that we will see some improvement over the coming months, although we recognize that an earlier intervention may have been beneficial to her long term prognosis.
To find an optometrist near you, visit The Ontario Association of Optometrists website here.
Jennifer Hartman, Guest Blogger
