Everything Looks Different

About a month ago I had decided that Aiden might need speech therapy for his lisp. I wasn't sure if it was one of those things that would just go away with age. For some reason it kept nagging at me and nagging at me. I finally called the public school preschool system that would offer free speech therapy. They told me that he would first have to pass the eye and hearing exam. I thought, "No problem." So, we go down to Canyon Trails Elementary and I'm standing there while they do his eye test. The lady says, "Hmmmm. Let me try again." She tries again. And again. She finally turns to me and says, "Has he ever compained about not being able to see things?" I say, "No. Why?" "Well," she says, "This machine is telling me that he can't see out of his right eye very well." I'm a bit shocked and doubtful of her prognosis. She moves on to the ears. Again I hear, "Hmmmmm. Let me try that again." By now I'm thinking WHAT??? She turns to me and says, "This machine it telling me that he can't hear out of his right ear." W-H-A-T??? If the children fail the hearing or eye exam they won't even test for the reason you brought them in for. So, we leave the school with a little piece of paper requesting an eye and hearing exam from a real doctor. I then make an appointment to have his eyes checked. Still I am unconcerned because I figure that the lady didn't know how to use the machine or something.

The eye exam begins. Again, those dreaded words..."Hmmmm." from the doctor. She turns to me and says, "He isn't using his right eye. The left one is doing all the work." We then proceeded to test this theory by covering up each eye at different times. Anytime he could use his left eye he would get the correct letter. When he had to use his right, NOTHING. He would just turn and look at me and say, "I don't know what the letter is." We then tested for color blindness. He isn't color blind. He could read all the numbers. She then tells me that she is going to have to dilate his eyes to get an accurate prescription for glasses. My heart literally breaks right there. His prescription is +6.00 in the right eye and +5.00 in the other. Translation: My baby can't see. My mind starts to wander about how he's never really seen any of our faces (he has a + prescription = he can't see up close), he's never really seen the things he colors, and on and on. I start to tear up...only to realize that dilation means those drops that really sting. I felt like such a liar. I told Aiden they wouldn't do anything that hurt him. They made me hold his arms down while they pried open his eyes and put the drops in. He was screaming and I was bawling. My poor little man. Anyway, he didn't cry too long. We picked out some glasses and left on vacation. The glasses came in today and we went and got them. Here is my handsome little Aiden with new eyes!

When he put on the glasses, he stared at me. Then he stared at Alex. He says, "Mom, you both look different. He then kept staring at the ground saying, "This looks different, this looks different." We had to go to Walmart right afterwards and it took us about 15 minutes to walk INTO the store because he kept stopping to look at the road and cars up close and his brothers and etc., etc., etc. The whole time I had tears in my eyes. I know that the Lord kept nagging me about the lisp so that I would get him in to get his eyes checked. The eye Dr. told me that I should feel very lucky that we found this out while he is still so young. Sometimes in cases like his, when one eye does all the work the other eye starts to go crossed, a lazy eye. Then you have some real problems on your hands. Or she said kids get to school and start falling behind and no one can figure out why. We are so blessed. I am so thankful to the Lord for extending me and my little Aiden this tender mercy. The lisp doesn't even bother me anymore and seems unnoticeable! We are off to get his hearing checked next week! I really hope he doesn't need a hearing aid too. I'll keep ya posted! For now...here is a picture of Aiden with new eyes!