Monday, August 9, 2010

The knife after all

So after visits to two different pediatric opthalmologists over two years, we've finally heard the official word that yes, he needs surgery. Scheduled for October, and we have to run around and do crazy things like get him a physical less than 30 days beforehand but not too early, because I guess his physicalness could change in a month. And if he's got the sniffles, they cancel. And he has to fast for eight hours beforehand. Which, if you've met my son, is impossible. We'll have to sneakily eat breakfast behind his back that morning, cause if I have to sit in a hospital waiting room for an hour while someone cuts into the muscle attached to my kid's eyeball, no way am I doing that on no food.

Would anyone notice if I snuck a flask into the hospital?

The p.o. said it used to take one blink for kiddo's eyes to snap back into focus, but now it takes longer. And watching him more closely this week, sure, I see it. His eyes are more consistently off balance. I used to tell him, "Hey, focus!" but clearly that's not going to cut it so I'm not bothering.

We were in the waiting room at the p.o.'s -- and I must say, the office at their more northerly location is way nicer, offering a TV, kids books and more than two inches of free space (I'm being unfair; they're remodeling this other one) -- when a couple of women came in with a younger boy still in the infant car seat, wearing glasses, clearly with the same problem kiddo has. So about a year old, judging from the seat and the way he wasn't quite standing on his own yet. Already in glasses. I can't even imagine. How did they keep the things on his head? We couldn't make kiddo wear a patch for more than five seconds at a time, even a patch with cool soccer balls on it.

So his entourage (mom/aunt?) let him loose to crawl around the floor, and kiddo found that hilarious, seeing it all the time as he does with his sister. He crawled over to join the other boy, and they spontaneously created a game in which kiddo would crawl away and the other boy would follow. After kiddo's appointment, we passed the other family on the way out of the building, and the two boys bonded again over the fact that they'd both picked the same cheapie plastic motorcycle man out of the prize box. Too cute.

I knew the surgery was coming at some point. That's been clear to us from the start. I'm not happy about it, but I'm not lying awake nights, either, mostly because I've been sleep-deprived for three-plus years now and *nothing* is keeping me awake nights short of a bomb or a crying child. We'll just have to see how this goes.

But hey, the other p.o. said that aside from his strabismus, his vision is perfect! Um, thanks?