Matthew and Kayla's First Visit to the Eye Doctor

Last week, while eating dinner, Jon mentioned to me that he thought Matthew's left eye was a little bit "lazy."  I'm not an observant person, so I had never noticed before, but now that he had mentioned it I definitely noticed it too.  When I mentioned Jon's observation to my Mom, she said she had just started noticing it too the last few weeks.  I called the eye doctor the next day and got an appointment for yesterday.  I right away made an appointment for Kayla too, because she might as well get her eyes checked.  Gotta love that kids' eye exams are covered by MSP!

Kayla had her appointment first yesterday.  I was shocked that they would do the 'hot air balloon' machine on kids!  Kayla was very intimated by the large machine and the noises it made, so I really had to hold her head in place and had to keep reassuring her that the noises weren't scary.  Matthew did the 'hot air balloon' test next, and did amazing.  He sat so still on my lap and watched the hot air balloon the whole time.

Next came the actual appointment with the eye doctor, Dr. Samra.  He was great with both Matthew and Kayla.  Kayla was VERY nervous/scared sitting in the large patient-chair by herself, but followed his instructions well.  Dr. Samra said that the results are very subjective as kids this young can't give any feedback/input on their sight, but he said Kayla is a little far-sighted, but that it's completely normal and he considers her vision to be 20-20.

Matthew did great during his appointment.  The first test was for him to stare at a small light on a pen and Dr. Samra instantly noticed that Matthew's left eye drifted closer to his nose because the light reflecting in his pupil was centred like it was in his right eye.  After further testing, he figured that Matthew is quite far-sighted (more than Kayla/what's normal), and that maybe his left eye is drifting when he is focusing because it's trying to overcompensate to make things clear.  We are now being referred to Dr. Cline, a pediatric optometrist in Fraser Heights, to see what his opinion is.  Dr. Samra was pretty positive that Matthew would not need surgery, but maybe Dr. Cline would recommend a prescription or maybe he would just want to keep an eye on it.  We'll see what happens!