Our second son, Tucker was diagnosed with Amblyopia in October 2012 right before his 7th birthday he got his first pair of glasses, after a vision screening at the beginning of First Grade caught that he needed a follow up with an eye doctor.
Both my husband and I wear glasses and so we would talk about it with the Pediatrician and watch closely at home for any signs of vision problems. His eye doctor is pretty sure that he has never seen clearly out of his right eye since birth, but he never showed any of the symptoms for it. This statement made us feel horrible and wish that we had followed through earlier with an eye exam. She also told us that his left eye is strong and therefore has been making up all of the difference making the diagnosis harder.
In January 2013 we started patching for 2 hours a day and we were blessed with a miracle because within 3 weeks of patching Tucker was able to read small print with his bad eye. It was amazing!! His prescription is a +4 in his right eye and before patching he was unable to read when covering his good eye. It was wonderful to see such improvement so quickly. I was prepared for it to take longer.
At his follow up appointment in April we confirmed that he was indeed already seeing 20/30 in his right eye, which was AMAZING! His doctor was thrilled and so were we. We are still patching everyday but only 1 hour each day. We allow him to play video games or use the iPad for some of the time while he is patching and so many times he asks for his patch before he asks for his electronic time.
I know that many of you have huge struggles with patching. We are grateful that Tucker is one resilient, strong kid who rolls with the punches of life. We talked a lot about what would help his eye heal and what his job would be to help it work properly. He just got it and did what was needed, although not always without a fight.
Something that I have learned is that it is always hard to hear that your child is going to be different from his peers. We were worried that the kids at school would tease him, but it has been an easy transition for him. It was harder for us to accept than him I think. I know that many of you have struggles with patching, comments from people, etc. however our experience has been mostly positive so far, I am so thankful for this and count it as a blessing.
Tucker’s story is almost the same as my son Haydn’s! he had an eye exam at school at the end of first grade, went to the dr and he now wears glasses and patching therapy. We just got his glasses on June 25th, 2013. Tucker’s story gives me hope for Haydn!
Im so glad. Tucker is my nephew and such a great example. I hope the patching works!