Since the day McKade was born I have noticed that something is "different" with his right eye. I always thought it to be a little lazy. I mentioned it to my mom not long ago and she said that she had not noticed, but they usually give patches for lazy eyes to make them stronger. I made him an appointment with the optometrist completely expecting to come home with an eye patch.
After explaining to the optometrist what I have noticed about his eye, he cannot look right with his right eye and he contracts it a bit (Like Popeye), she takes a quick look, and says, "Was he premature?"
"No".
"Were there any complications?"
"Nothing other than the cord wrapped around his neck".
"Okay, well you should not feel bad because this is nothing you did wrong or could have prevented."
Of course this prepares me for the worst and I immediately start to feel the guilt setting in.
She goes on to tell me he has Duane Syndrome and there is nothing that can be done about it. After doing some research on it I found out that it can either be environmental or genetic and actually happens during the 3rd to 8th week of pregnancy. The eye muscle does not form correctly. This is a rare condition, but she had someone in her optometry classes in college with it so she knows about it. She then went and got her optometry student to show it to him.
McKade will quickly turn his head if he looks right and his eye will contract. Being that he was born with it, they cannot fix it because his brain has compensated for it since birth. If they were to try to fix it now it would probably make things worse.
Anyway, they go on with the rest of the appointment to check his eyesight. He was so cute as they put different pictures on the wall and he was to name them. The first one was a wagon. He called it a tractor, but no one could understand him. I got to decipher his language. The next picture was the palm of a hand. He says hi pie. The assistant was so confused as I explained he said, High five". I thought that was so cute. He did very well and his eyesight is fine.
They then used some strong drops to dilate his eyes. He did great, but definitely did not like this. He kept telling me he couldn't see. When we left they gave him his cool glasses. I commented that he was not going to wear these, and I made a big deal out of them when I gave them to him. "These are so cool McKade. They are giving them to you for doing such a good job." The girls at the desk all got the cue and joined in about how awesome they are. I must say he proudfully wore them all the way home, including stopping at Kroger for a snack. He did take them off once we were in the house, but the lights hurt his eyes so he put them back on for another hour or so.
The optometrist did suggest getting his hearing checked as a precaution. I am going to wait as he has a speech evaluation in 1.5 weeks. I will decide after discussing some concerns with them to see if they think an audiologist visit is in order.
