Thursday, January 26, 2012

Pirates in the Closet

Our family has a secret. One of my daughters is a pirate. Well, not really. But she will be wearing a pirate eye patch for 2 hours every night for the next 3 months. The pirate patch is to treat her mild amblyopia, also called lazy eye. The muscles of one eye are not as strong as they need to be to hold the eye in the correct position. At this point it is very mild, but if left untreated it could lead to loss of sight in her bad eye. Fortunately, the treatment is fairly easy. We just have to put a patch over her strong eye so the weak eye has to work harder. Kind of like weight lifting for her eyeball.

At least I think the treatment is easy. BG is not so sure about the whole thing. She started complaining that she was having problems seeing at school. She was sort of mentally prepared to start wearing glasses. Our visit to a local pediatric ophthalmologist was a bit of a surprise. BG doesn't need glasses. In fact, her vision is almost perfect except for the amblyopia.

So what is the secret? BG is currently embarrassed by her patch. And she doesn't want anyone to know about it. She even told her friend "I can't tell you our family secret." So for now only the 4 of us know. And her teacher (I thought I had to let her in on it). And the school nurse (BG failed an eye test and the nurse gave us a sheet to have filled out and signed by her doctor). And, now 2 of her friends at school. She is slowly warming to the idea and getting used to wearing the patch. She has really been very cooperative and brave about the whole thing. I'm very proud of her.

But don't tell anyone. It's a family secret.

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