Good news from the new eye doctor

My husband took Katie to the new eye doctor this morning, since I feel like I have been hit by a truck. I really wanted to be there, but couldn't bear the thought of having him contract my flu and then infect his sweet family. From what I understand, things are "exactly how I said they were yesterday" according to my husband. From what he can remember, the new prescription is 20/40 in the good eye, and 20/50 in the lazy one, and two hours of patching during eye therapy. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, She used to be 20/30 in the good eye, and it seems to have gotten worse (or John is incorrect). On the other hand, the bad eye has improved and both eyes are getting close to the same. I'm glad that I had her switch doctors from who who is very "experienced" (and hasn't updated his equipment since his office opened in the late 60's?) to one who has up to date equipment and current knowledge of his field. We go back in three months.

Big Sister's eye appt.

I went to a new eye doctor, an optometrist last month with my older daughter because she has been sitting too close to the TV. When we went with Sarah, he did tests on her that Katie had never had. He said that was surprising, since he really didn't do a whole lot. He double checked her for Amblyopia, since her sister has it. He said that Sarah is on the bad side of normal and we will double check in a few years if she grows out of it.
I have been thinking about switching Katie (my daughter with Amblyopia) to him. We talked a little about Katie, whom he had met before, and her treatment. I loved that he was honest with me that I "probably know more about Amblyopia than he does because [I] have an interest in it". I know he isn't a specialist in the field, but he does encourage vision therapy (even though he does not offer it) and takes my insurance. I decided I would wait until Katie's 2 month checkup and see what is going on with her Opthamologist before switching. That was today.
I am SO frustrated and definately switching docs. When I told the new doctor that Katie was supposed to be patching 6 hours a day, he said that there are studies that show that 6-12 is no better than 3-6. This, coupled with the vision therapy we have created ourselves, seems to be doing a lot for her. Two months ago, Katie went from 20/100 in the amblyopic eye to 20/60. Today she varied between 20/60 and 20/40. Well, that sounds like improvment to me, but he said he wanted to hit it hard and told us to patch her all day. Maybe I'm wrong, but I am NOT going to be doing that. She HATES it. We did this already and it made her good eye turn late at night and made her a crabby girl. I do not want to go through that again. I will be seeing the new doctor tomorrow to get things going on a different track. I know that the patching is working. I know that the eye therapy that we are doing at home is working. She is doing better, and I am really happy about that. I was so mad in the office I couldn't talk to him about it, so I think I will call this afternoon and explain my concerns and why I did not set a return appointment.

How to make an eye patch for Amblyopia or Strabismus

 Every parent of a child that has to wear an eye patch as vision therapy knows how much of a pain adhesive patches can be, let alone expensive. My daughter has to patch for six hours a day to make her amblyopic eye stronger. It has been a few months of trial and error to figure out a patch that she will actually wear. This is the solution that we came up with, and it just so happens to be the easiest and cheapest.

This is a no-sew eye patch that connects to a pair of glasses that have a nose piece. You will need one sheet of 2mm craft foam, a pen, a pair of scissors, and a small hole punch (optional).

I could give you the template for our patches, but chances are, they probably won't fit your face. Every face is different, and a slightly different shape may be more effective for you. You can practice the shape you need with a sheet of paper before you cut into your foam. I laid the glasses out and kind of traced around where I thought the patch should be. Keep in mind the following: if it's too big around the nose, the patch will make the glasses slip down the face. We put a little bump around the bridge of the glasses to keep the wearer from peeking. Form it around the cheek so it doesn't dig in, and bring the top up high enough that if the glasses do slip down a bit, the wearer can't peek above it. It's better to make the patch too big and then trim it down, than to make it too small to start with.

Trace all the patches onto the foam sheet and then cut them out. I can fit 15 on a sheet. Let's do some math here. One sheet of craft foam is $.75. It makes 15 reusable patches. Adhesive one-time-use patches cost $4.35 for 20. So, do you pay $.5 a patch, or do you pay $.21 a patch? Duh.

UPDATE 12/09: I found craft foam in big packages with lots of colors at the dollar store. This would make these even CHEAPER, if you can imagine that.

You can see above that now and again my daughter will get fed up with her patch and rip the thing off. She is three. I expect it. These are so cheap and easy that I don't care. The next step is to punch the holes. you need one at the back to thread the ear piece through, and two at the nose to thread the nose piece through. Then cut a slit with the scissors, connecting the dots on the nose. Punching the hole will prevent the foam from tearing as easy, making a stopping place for it.

If you don't have a small hole punch, you have a few options. You can cut just a slit on the nose and an X in the back, but that will lead more often to tears in the foam.You can also use a larger hole punch and overlap the holes on the nose.
These are really easy to decorate with stickers. I have also sewn a layer of fabric on top of the patch to dress it up a bit. They also take well to drawings and doodles.

Amblyopia - Katie's story

My ragamuffin :)

On Katie's two and a half year bithday, I noticed as she was sitting way too close to the TV right before bedtime, that her left eye didn't look so straight anymore. My husband thought I was crazy. Slowly over the next few months it got worse. The second her pediatrician saw it, he gave me a referral to the same doctor who had unblocked the tear duct of said eye when she was 13 months old. She has 20/30 vision in one eye and 20/100 in the other. She got glasses and after 4 days, we could really tell they were helping her. No wonder she was so shy around people and rowdy in the car. All she could see were talking blobs and whatever was in her lap.

We brought home a box of sticky patches about 6 weeks later. By the end of the day, all were gone. She was prescribed atropine, even though I really didn't want to do it. After 3 months, he decided it wasn't working, so we are back to the patch 6 hours a day, plus drops in both eyes. I've made her several patches, knowing that the sticky ones are just a waste of money. She always looks down over the top, or out the bridge of her nose. We are always fighting about it. I'm sad because I just want my perfect little girl back. I know it could be a lot worse, she could be really really sick, and not just have poor vision, but it's still so hard to know that she is as frustrated with all of it as I am.

People always ask about the patch. She has to wear it so much, it's inevitable. Kids stare. Her sister uses the words "lazy eye" a lot (what kid can say amblyopia, and what adult actually knows what it is anyway?) and those words bother me. I'm always thankful for those who understand and have experience with it and encourage me that it gets better. I'm thankful for the internet and being able to go to the amblyopia kids website and looking at all the pictures of girls just like her in their patches, showing her that it isn't that bad. I'm thankful that other than this one thing she is healthy. Some days patching is harder than others (today was a hard day) and I hope that at our next check-up we'll find that things are going better.