Just Like Daddy

Just before Christmas, I noticed something different about Coleman. We were eating supper and he was sitting across from me, when it happened. He was looking right at me, and his left eye just crossed. All by itself. It corrected itself pretty quickly, but it happened again several times during supper. Of course Brent never did see it happen, and thought I had imagined it. Over the next few nights, it happened repeatedly. Finally, Brent saw it and we decided to make an appointment with an opthamologist.

I could tell you that I wasn't the least bit nervous about it, and that I jumped to no conclusions about what could possibly be wrong. Of course, if I did tell you that, I'd be lying. I was very nervous and fearful that there was something terribly wrong with his eyes. Our appointment on January 6 in Dunwoody seemed very far away.

Finally, the day came and Brent and I headed off with Coleman. Gigi and Papack came to spend the day with Jonathan and Andrew so we could give Coleman a special day by himself. We made it to Dunwoody right on time and found the office. Brent and I were kind of expecting to come home with a patch for his eye, but when the first lady came in and examined him, she said she thought he was far-sighted (he can't see well up close) and would need glasses. We were shocked! He had been squinting, but we thought it was because of the crossing. As it turns out, the eye was having such difficulty focusing, and it was working so hard, that it just crossed.

When the doctor came in, she agreed and started determining his prescription. His eyes had been dialated, so he sat in Brent's lap and looked at a tv across the room. She chose different lenses and tried one at a time on his eyes. I was sitting across from him, so I could see how his eyes reacted to the lenses. It was amazing. When she put the correct lens on his right eye, his left eye flew back into place. It uncrossed the instant the right lens was in place.

The results were astounding. Coleman is two to three times more farsighted than most other children his age. She said that between three and six is usually when this starts to show up. She also noticed I was crying (is anyone shocked?) and said not to worry, that his eyes hadn't always been like this. Up until now, they have been able to compensate and he's been able to focus on his own. But now, they can't keep up and need some help. She fully expects the lenses to correct the crossing, and over time, his prescription will lessen. We go back in April for a progress check.

Here are a few pictures from Coleman's big day. Here he is wearing the glasses for dialation when we left.


We let him pick where we ate lunch, and he chose Wendy's. After lunch, we went to LifeWay and chose a new Veggie Tales dvd. Then we headed over to Northpoint Mall. He got to ride the carousel.

And he got to choose a cookie from the Cookie Company. He also brought one to Andrew. While he was eating it, he said, "It sure is chocolatey!"

After he finished his cookie, we saw that there was a little play area like our mall in Winston Salem had. So we let him climb around on the rides for a bit.

The next day, we had him fitted for frames in Gainesville. They called me Monday and said the glasses were ready. We loaded up and picked them up that morning. He was a little hesitant to put them on at first, but with the promise of a Chick-fil-A milkshake, he took his hands off his face and let the girl put them on.

We drove over to Brent's office to show him, and everyone we saw loved them. His glasses have been a huge hit at school too. Yesterday was his first day to wear them to school, and when I picked him up, I asked what everyone thought about his glasses. He said, "They wuved them!" He has two cases, and so one stays in his backpack for school. He can take them off when he's on the playground, in the tub, or sleeping. I thought we might have a time getting him to wear them, but he has really surprised us. He hardly ever takes them off! I think they must make a huge difference in how he sees the world. And if he didn't look enough like Brent to start with, he really now does look just like his daddy.