Big girl bed! New purple glasses! Happy Stella.

In the first chapter of John Gottman’s wonderful book, Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child, my current daily life is illuminated: “Behavioral psychologists have observed that preschoolers typically demand that their caretakers deal with some kind of need or desire at an average rate of three times a minute.” Stella is officially two and a half, 38 inches tall and sleeping in a big girl bed. She has more demands and opinions and upset and glee now than even just six months ago. She’s in some sort of developmental transition period. At times I’m awed and at others, I’m borderline insane. This is a fun but challenging age requiring tons of patience. A tricky age indeed for vision therapy, which requires focus, patience and the tabling of those smaller demands in order to accomplish something she doesn’t fully understand. (I do think she gets it partially, though.)

Stella recently had two evaluations. One with her pediatric ophthalmologist and the other with her developmental optometrist, within about a week of each other. The conclusions by both were encouraging, overall, but quite different. Our intention was to use the results to gauge how vision therapy was going, especially since Stella’s been resisting more. We wanted to figure out whether we should take a break and come back to vision therapy in six or so months, or carry on.

The ophthalmologist determined that Stella’s amblyopic eye is 20/40 but bordering on 20/30. And that her other eye is 20/30 bordering on 20/20. They go with the lowest number, I suppose, in order to crush parents’ spirits–I mean, in order to be conservative and not overestimate visual abilities. (It does make sense.) She very cheerfully told us we could reduce patching from three to four hours to just two hours. I have not told her that we’ve been patching differently than she prescribed. Instead of patching three to four hours a day with an adhesive patch placed directly on Stella’s skin for complete occlusion, we’ve been patching two to three hours a day with Magic Tape over Stella’s glasses lens, and doing vision therapy, which they will hopefully remain ignorant of because I don’t want it to taint their assessment or treatment of me and Stella. It was reassuring to hear her, someone who said Stella may have to patch for a few years, say that patching was effective and that we could reduce it. At the end of the appointment, I asked her, “So, is there anything else we can do for Stella?” She hesitated for a split second and then said, ‘No. It doesn’t matter what they do while patched.’ And that was that.

Hold onto your hats. In our evaluation with the developmental optometrist, Stella showed 20/20 vision in both eyes. This is huge, and I haven’t really come to fully believe it yet–though I saw it with my own 20/20 eyes. It took Stella a tad longer to see the targets with her amblyopic eye, but not too much longer. She could see the chart’s 20/20 line far away and up close, with both eyes. Sometimes answering instantly, when the smiling doctor playfully sang “quickly quickly!” Why there is a discrepancy in performance between the two appointments, I’m not sure. The testing procedures and atmospheres were certainly different. Mainly, more time was taken at the optometrist, with more nuanced testing done.

Randot Stereo Test

While I was stunned when Stella identified the teeny tiny symbols (bird, cake, etc.) indicative of 20/20 acuity, I was just as thrilled when, during that same optometrist appointment, Stella was able to see three 3D circle images  in the top left section of the chart (the Randot Stereo Test at left). Last time, she didn’t get any of those and saw only one thing pop out at her–the 3D character in line A in the bottom portion of that left panel. Alas, she still only got one in that section. I suspect that her attention span complicates this, and the doctor did acknowledge that it’s possible Stella can see more than she is able to indicate. But perhaps not. As I’m known to say these days, after over-analyzing some Stella-related concern to the point of boring even myself, “Who the hell knows!?” I’m just grateful for the improvement.

The ophthalmologist’s 3D testing was much faster and simpler. Instead of a multi-layered chart with different lines measuring different degrees of stereoscopy, they used a single large image of a fly–the Stereo Fly test, which I learned about on Strabby (more on Sally and her blog in a minute). Stella seemed to try to pet the insect after some coaxing. They nodded approvingly. I wondered what Stella saw and thought and wished she could describe it to me.

I was crestfallen to hear, at the ophthalmologist’s office, that they saw no improvement in Stella’s vision. Yet they seemed incredibly happy with how she was doing. They noted that the acuity in Stella’s amblyopic eye is and has always been above average for her age. Her other eye’s acuity (with glasses, of course) is way above average. They said her vision was developing very nicely.

Both doctors concur that the eye crossing (esotropia), so far at least, has been eliminated by the glasses. Perhaps with help from vision therapy, as I believe the eyes did cross in exam with glasses earlier on in this journey. I haven’t seen Stella’s eyes cross in such a long time as they are aligned when she wears her glasses, which is all the time, excepting bedtime, bathtime and her weekly half hour of swimming (prescription goggles may be in her future) and occasional fits of toddler rage. Stella’s eyes did not cross in either of the recent exams, even after the typical attempts to break alignment. This is huge, often overlooked by myself and Cody, and worth celebrating with lots of wine. I have so many pictures from her babyhood in which I can now immediately detect the not-so-obvious difference in her eyes’ positioning. We also have photos and videos from her ER visit at 18 months of age, during which both eyes were severely crossed (seemingly out of nowhere, though again, we realize now that they’d been slightly misaligned, frequently but thankfully just “intermittently,” her whole life). We keep the ER images as a reminder of why we’re doing all of this. It’s very difficult for me and Cody to view them, because she looked so vulnerable and clearly couldn’t see anything except foggy blurs. But they’re powerful appreciation boosters, and quickly give me perspective when I’m stressing about Stella’s refusal to go to bed without getting up ten times to talk about Papa Bear’s porridge or flamingos or other topics meant to engage me and delay the train to Snoozetown by a good three hours. (And breathe!)

The bottom line is that her eyes–their refractive power and degree of slight astigmatism and as a result, their acuity–are different. It’s refreshingly simple. The two doctors agree on this. It’s the discrepancy between the two eyes that has led Stella down the path to amblyopia.

Both doctors, seeing Stella through their respective lenses, were very positive. Through the course of both appointments, I was amazed, disappointed, encouraged and informed on several levels. I walked away from these evaluations with some real reassurance, but also some points to ponder endlessly and inanely. Stella’s degree of stereopsis (3D vision) has improved wonderfully in just two months, but further improvement is needed. I wish I’d questioned the ophthalmologist more on their take on this. Do they think Stella has normal 3D vision because she tried to pet the fly (I think we called it a bee)? Are they settling by assuming, “at least she has some 3D vision,” or do they genuinely think she has age-appropriate stereoscopy? I wondered aloud to the developmental optometrist: When Stella has moments of experiencing 3D vision, does it freak her out and lead her to suppress her amblyopic eye? Our optometrist said that yes, this can happen. Which may explain why Stella frequently says, “Mommy I need a break!” But, the doctor explained, if I’m around, serving as Stella’s anchor and emotional safety net, it shouldn’t be an issue. For that reason and many others, I am so happy that I get to be with Stella during this time in her life. I get to be there to eat the pretend lunch she prepared and soothe her when her vision acts up (though I never really know for sure) and observe all the little things that indicate what she’s seeing and experiencing–which prove helpful to this process but might otherwise go unnoticed. I see how her peripheral vision is really good now. I see that puzzles are a breeze. I see her push her left lens closer to her eye. I hear her say things about her eyes that give me hope. I’m fortunate to have this time. Happy to take all (okay most) of it in.

These are the symbols Stella identifies.

These exams were more than just “let’s see how she’s doing” meetings. This latest evaluation, particularly with the developmental optometrist, was a crossroads. I was nervous. I feared Stella would feel my heart pounding as she sat on my lap in the big black exam throne. We came to this point of decision-making because it’s not only been increasingly tough to get cooperation from Stella for vision therapy at home, but also in the office at times. Some exercises are much more well received than others both at home and in the office. Some appointments are simply better than others and I still believe that she gets a lot out of all of them. At home, it can take over an hour to get 20 minutes of therapy done. (I find that time hard to fit in comfortably–but I suspect other, more normal and organizationally proficient moms might do a better job of this so I really don’t want to deter other families who have a child of two and a half who might greatly benefit from vision therapy.) We’ve been told to do the exercises earlier in the day, when Stella is less tired and there is more natural light, because we tended to shove them in at the end of the day. After a glass of wine, I’m a much more effective and relaxed vision therapist. But I am slowly getting better at overcoming my dread of possible screaming and infinite dawdling and learning to break therapy up into small chunks. A quick matching game (with the patch) before lunch. Sticking skewers intro straws while patched and eating dessert. That sort of thing. Did I mention that I’m not very organized? If The Container Store had a blacklist, I’d be on it. Though I do have a big green plastic box in which I dump all of our vision therapy games and tools, which is a true Martha Stewart moment by my standards.

In the end, due to her gains in 3D vision and acuity as witnessed in the optometrist’s office, and even the ophthalmologist’s thumbs up assessment of Stella’s visual status, we’ve decided to continue vision therapy for another few weeks, at least. With an emphasis on use of the yoked prism goggles, which merit an entire post (coming soon), and more physical exercises that engage the vestibular system and body as they relate to and inform vision, from what I gather, helping Stella’s brain devise a more accurate map of space and her place in it. Stella enjoys those activities more, anyway. Bouncing, rolling, running? She’s in! Donning red/green glasses and slowly scanning the kitchen floor for matches, MFBF style? She’s so done with that particular game. She used to get 15 matches in one shot, now I’m lucky to get five reluctant matches worth of cooperation and sometimes she refuses completely and we both end up in tears. So I have to roll with it and be more flexible than ever. Putting those cards on the wall over the couch and letting her bounce around while searching does help make it more novel and fun. But I’m not sure that exercise is worth it anymore. Stella’s vision therapist agrees and is going to move us along to some new MFBF exercises to build upon this work and mix things up. We really like her–she’s had letters thrown at her, cards torn out of her hands, and shrill, blood-curdling screams shatter her eardrums, yet she keeps a cool head at all times. Me? Not so much. I sweat during those appointments to the degree where I stash deodorant in the diaper bag.

So we are at the beginning of a big vision therapy push. Can I help Stella get to the next level? I sure hope so. We’re going to do our best. We’re seeing progress and it would kill me to break now especially with the promise of yoked prism goggles just starting to be a staple in her vision therapy buffet. If a break is needed after that, fine. But if so, we’ll be back at vision therapy as soon as Stella is ready. Do kids become more cooperative at three? Good lord I hope so because caring for a two and a half year old is like playing with fire. I’ll tell you what, though. I appreciate Stella’s strong will (the screaming? less so) and don’t blame her one bit for resisting patching and exercises, the purpose of which she doesn’t comprehend. Between that and patching, we ask a lot of her. She does amazingly well for her age, and knows her numbers, shapes, and letters better than many kids twice as old, which has helped make a lot of exercises possible. As they say where I’m from, she’s wicked smaht. Don’t even get me stahted!

It’s been twenty seconds since I’ve heard, “Mommy? MOMMY!?” So another Stella need will arise now and I must go. But first a shout-out to our comrade Strabby, who recently had a huge vision therapy breakthrough using a lot of the same therapeutic tools that Stella employs. It is so fascinating to hear her account of her first glimpses of “3D-ish” vision–I bet that’s what Stella was experiencing when she said, “I can see with both eyes!” Strabby gives me a better idea of what Stella might be seeing and going through, which helps keep me motivated. Thank you and congratulations, Strabby Sally. Keep it up. Lead the way to 3D-ville, baby! We’re right behind you!