Alena and Lauren passed their evaluation with flying colors, but Caleb didn't. Instead he came home with a list of local optometrists and ophthalmologists and a "strong" recommendation that we schedule for him to see one.
Huh?! I hadn't noticed any abnormality in his eyes and from what I can see he doesn't seem to have any difficulty with vision. There was concern for anisocoria, (one pupil smaller than the other), which immediately threw up lots of alarms in my head. (It is sometimes a HUGE disadvantage to work in the medical field).
I thought, how could I have missed unequal pupils in my 2 year old? How could my pediatrician not have picked up on this? He was seen by the Lion's Club last year and his evaluation was normal! Of course, I felt guilty that something serious may have been overlooked.
I quickly scheduled him with a pediatric ophthalmologist in Des Moines (there is only one clinic in central Iowa!), so his appointment was a few weeks ago. Great, 3 weeks to worry about this...and 3 weeks to carefully examine my child's eyes, looking for other significant symptoms which could indicate something serious. I know I could have scheduled him with an optometrist the following day but I really wanted a pediatric ophthalmologist to see him, especially after finding out my insurance would cover the visit.
Appointment Day:
I decided to take him to his appointment myself, knowing that he is normally such an easy going guy. Plus, he was REALLY excited to go to the "eye doctor" so I was crossing my fingers that this 2 hour appointment would not be a disaster.
We were the first appointment of the morning, which was a plus. The waiting room was full of fun toys, and Caleb especially loved playing with the large tractor and trailer. Soon after arriving we were taken back to the exam room. He quickly jumped into the exam chair by himself and was such a trooper during the initial part of the exam.
Here is where I was glad I chose a pediatric ophthalmologist: I was very impressed with all the "tools" she used to keep him looking in the direction she wanted him to. I'm sure it's challenging to do an eye exam on a 2 year old, but all her tricks worked like a charm for him. An entire wall was full of entertainment she had control of with a switch: A dancing rainbow pig, 3 plastic penguins who went around and around, a small TV with images that kept changing, a tiger that roared... She was so good with him. After that part of the exam, we went into the room where the eye drops would be placed. He laid on top of a dinosaur table while the tech placed 3 different drops in each eye. He did great and was rewarded with a sticker and more time playing in the waiting room while we waited for his eyes to dilate.
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| Each box had something different to keep his attention during the exam |
The final part of the exam was quick and we were finally given a diagnosis: A normal variance of anisocoria! This is a normal finding in 20% of the population, and my little one just has to be in the minority. Whew, all those big, bad and ugly diagnoses that went through my head when I first learned of this abnormality were erased. We did find out that he is far-sighted (which is common at this age), and hopefully something he will outgrow. He will follow up in 1 year for another evaluation.
When God created him he must not have paid as much attention to the left side of his body, (it probably didn't help that another human was being created at the same time). Both abnormalities he has had have been on the left side. Let's hope we don't discover any more issues!
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