Eye doctor

Last weekend, I was in the kitchen getting dinner ready. Madelyn pulled her chair up to the counter and was standing next to me. We were playing around and I was about 12 inches or so from her face. All of a sudden her right eye drifted to the center and crossed. It stayed that way until I sort of snapped her out of it. To show Heath, I had her focus on my finger and her eye crossed again. Of course, I consulted Dr. Google right away and found out that she might be farsighted and it was something that should be addressed in an effort to prevent having a lazy eye as she gets older. So, as the weekend went on, she appeared to be crossing the eye on purpose. Brody caught on, thought it was funny, and has been telling her to do it and she does. On command. I went ahead and called the pediatrician first thing on Monday morning and they gave me the name of  a pediatric opthamologist, so I called and immediately made an appointment for her. Today was the first that they could see her, so I took a half day off work (they said the appointment could last up to 2 and a half hours).

So we get there and she does a great job identifying the pictures. I was worried about how they would test her eyes, but she surprised me and knew what each of the pictures was. She only missed a couple, but it was nothing to be concerned about. Then the doctor started to look at her eyes, had her focus on pictures a few inches away, etc. and the eye would not cross. Then they dilated her eyes and we waited for about 45 minutes for that to take full effect. While we were waiting, she looked at me twice with her eye crossed. On purpose! I told her she needed to show the doctor and she said no! Then we went back in and the doctor looked at her eyes again. Again, could not get the eye to cross. The doctor said that her eyes look good and she doesn't need glasses at this point. She said that it is possible that the eye is developing a muscle problem, but for right now it's not that bad. So, if I notice a lot of unintentional crossing over the next month, I need to bring her back. Otherwise, I am scheduled to have her eyes rechecked in 6 months to make sure that she still doesn't need glasses.

I asked the doctor if it was really possible for her to be able to cross just one eye at 2 years old on purpose. She said it was highly unusual, especially the fact that she is only crossing the one eye. My mom said she's just really ornery...yes, she is.