Thursday, April 16, 2009

Our Pirate Princess


Today, we found out that Katie's left eye, which is the really bad one, is losing ground so the time has come to patch the other eye. We were really hoping that we would not have to do this but it has become necessary. Since finding this out and talking about it to others, I have found that this is more common than I once realized but that does not make it any more pleasant for our sweet girl, or for us, who hate to see her out of sorts.

Basically, the theory is that if you patch the good eye then the bad eye gets a signal from the brain to strengthen and work harder, thus improving the vision. If you fail to do this then the bad eye relies on the good eye to see and over time, the bad eye will have little to no vision.

As you can see, Katie was not too happy about this newest development but within about 15 minutes she started to perk up a bit. For this first day I kept it on about 3 hours and she never looked too comfortable. She kept closing the unpatched eye and craning her neck to one side like she was trying to escape from it. I hope that tomorrow goes a bit better. We have to keep the eye patched for half the time that she is awake so I will send her to school in it tomorrow. I hope it goes well.

Tonight, one of our friends came over before the DD went to sleep and Katie walked over to her and told her that "Mommy put a sponge on my eye today" A sponge? Love the way that little mind works.

13 comments:

Candy said...

Katie is beautiful even with the patch on her eye. Such a sweet face.

Stacey T. said...

Ahhh, poor Katie!!! What a cool looking patch, though. My friends son had to wear a patch for a while and they had such cool ones. Camoflage, sharks, animal prints!!

Angel said...

Katie is lovely with her patch. I hope all goes well tomorrow.

Unknown said...

You are doing the right thing. My husband has very little vision in his left eye because they didn't find the problem until he was in 3rd grade and it could not be corrected like it could have if they had discovered it sooner.

tumbleintodreams said...

Good Luck to Katie. I hope wearing the patch gets easier each day.
sherri

We5Chois said...

Katie makes the most beautiful pirate princess ever. Tell her we said she looks very cool and we are so proud of her. It is going to get better,just stick with it.
I hope to see our smiley girl again soon.

Samantha said...

You are right it is very common - and very frustrating for the kids, but worth it in the end.
She really is a beautiful little girl!

Mary said...

Oh, poor little Katie! You are a great mommy...and with the wisdom of Dr. Miller Katie will do GREAT! :o)

Tammie said...

I promise both you & Katie Starr that this does get easier to deal with.

Mary McG in TN said...

Please help Katie to "make lemonade". I know she hates the patch - but things could be worse.

My granddaughter has been in glasses since she was 18 months old. As she was so young they had to dialate her non functioning eye. At that young age she would not keep the patch on. The dialation is painful. Every morning she would plead, "No drops, Mommy". After six months they went from daily to 3 times a week. She has now been two months without dialation. The month of May will tell whether she has to go back to dialation.

Katie does not want the alternative!

Mary McG
in TN

Donna said...

Awww... what a beautiful pirate!


Donna
Our Blog: Double Happiness!

Secret Mom Thoughts said...

Poor pirate. Hope the patch works.

Midway Cottage said...

Hey Laurie, Eli wears a patch every day and yes, it does get easier. We try to put it on when he's at the table for breakfast, so that it's just part of the routine and then we take it off two hours later. He has done really well with it. (He has amblyopia.) Sending hugs to our Gansu friend!