The Glasses That Need to Retire | A Day of Eye Tests and the Dreadful Drops!

You can blame it to the busy mom or the doctor whose appointment calendar just does not free up. 😵But it's been almost a year since Kuya's last eye check-up.

Worse, his glasses' handles have been broken for quite some time now. We have our Little Monster to partially blame for that. Each time he wrestles with his kuya, a few minutes more then Kuya would come running with dismantled glasses.

It is not simple.

We cannot just go to an optical shop and get Kuya's eye power tested by an optometrist. For him, they would require prescription from an ophthalmologist before we can order for new glasses.

Since we changed our insurance, our previous eye hospital is not on our network coverage list so I had to look for another pediatric opthalmologist which will be covered by our medical insurance. On my first call, I was given an appointment which was after 3 weeks. I did not take an appointment but asked if we can go as walk in instead. Of course, you now know what happened. We were not able to go. 😆

Today, Finally.

Our appointment was 12.30pm and we were there at 12.15pm since it was our first time at this eye clinic and we needed to open the file. Aftersome time, we were called in by the optometrist to conduct some tests. I totally failed take into consideration the amount of time we needed to spend here- it took us 3 hours to complete the consultation!

A lot of visual tests- Eye chart test, retinoscopy and random dot stereopsis were just a few.

Retinoscopy is a test wherein light is shone into the eye to observe the reflection from the back of the eye (retina). This test helps eye doctors determine your child's eyeglass prescription.^[1]

He underwent another test wherein he wore 3D glasses and was asked to identify shapes that "pop out" from the board. It is called random dot stereopsis which measures how well your child's eyes work together as a team.^[2]

After all of these tests by the optometrist, we got to see the pediatric ophthalmologist. I honestly did not know everything they were doing. Lol. After a test with the doctor, Kuya needed 4 eye drops at intervals and over in 20 minutes. The purpose was to dilate the his pupils and conduct more thorough examinations (yup, the first few tests apparently were not enough).

Kuya knew the drops from his tests on his last check ups and just plainly despised them. Apparently, they gave burning, stinging sensation to the eyes. Moreso, it also blurs the vision for up to 3 days.

Before giving the drops, the nurse first asked several questions- does he have any history of asthma? allergy? allergic rhinitis? epilepsy? Any fever or taking any medication? Kuya actually was just starting to have colds, but fortunately had no fever. So the nurse proceeded with the drops

Ouchie! 😢

We had to wait 30 more minutes after the last drop to give the medicine time to take effect. We had time to grab for a quick lunch and went back to the clinic.

This time his pupils were already widely dilated, only a little smaller than the irises. Kuya said he did not have issues seeing far objects, but those near were blurry even with his glasses.

More Tests

Corneal Topography Test

This was the first time Kuya had undergone Corneal Topography Test. The optometrist said Kuya had very high astigmatism that he could not risk not performing the test.

Corneal topography is a process for mapping the surface curvature of the cornea, similar to making a contour map of land.^[3]

This is a computer aided test where they take images of the surface of the patient's eye.

Kuya was already getting tired of the procedures and at this point had to ask the optometrist, "are we not gonna be done?!".

When it was finally over - fortunately the test came out normal, he had to do another round of reading charts and off to the ophthalmologist we go.

There were some changes to the power of the lenses prescribed and we were asked to come back in 2-3 month's time toncheck whether the prescribed lenses were doing well for his vision.

Eye Testing for Children

A child, I learned, needs to be checked for his vision before he enters school. This is important since about 5 to 10 percent of preschool children have eye problems.^[4]

Kuya was diagnosed with lazy eye when he was in kindergarten. I noticed him squinting each time we were reading. Somehow we caught the symptoms just at nick of time since after 7 years old this condition would be harder to correct due to the child's eye development.

No time is too early to get a child tested especially if there is family history of vision problems. There are tests that are suited for any age, even for new borns.

Since daddy @kennyroy also has high astigmatism - his aunt and cousin also do, there is no argument that it is really imperative that my two smaller ones also undertake eye tests. Little Miss is turning 4 in a month's time so I guess I would take her on our next visit to the eye doctor.

The New Glasses

Fortunately, there was an optical shop in daddy @kennyroy's office building that had very good offers on glasses. I though that we'd spend around $300 for Kuya's glasses and lens prescription but we actually got it for half the price! And since these were special (high powered) lenses, we would have to wait for around 3 days to get the new pair of glasses.

Finally, the dying glasses can soon retire!

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_{All images are by the Author, taken via Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Cover image edit via Canva.}

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_References:

_{[1] [2] [4] Eye Exams For Children}

_{[3] Corneal Topography}

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