Glasses

We got an official diagnosis on Ben's eye - severe astigmatism, probably because of his prematurity (contrary to what our family said, but I'm more inclined to believe the pediatric ophthalmologist who sees preemies every day). Looks like that glasses bullet we thought we dodged 3 years ago has come back around! But after reading up on other possibilities of a child's eye suddenly turning, astigmatism is not a big deal.

Here's a good explanation I found online:
Astigmatism occurs when the cornea is shaped more like an Australian Rules football than a spherical tennis ball, which is the normal shape. In most astigmatic eyes, the oblong or oval shape causes light rays to focus on two points in the back of your eye, rather than on just one. This is because, like an Australian rules football, an astigmatic cornea has a steeper curve and a flatter one.

So basically Ben's left eye is getting really confusing images and his brain is basically starting to ignore it and see everything through his good right eye. The muscles aren't working as hard and that's why we're seeing it turn in. To correct the turn and the vision, we'll start with glasses.

Okay, not the 3-D glasses but a real pair. Luckily Ben really likes to wear sunglasses and pretty much anything else on his head so hopefully these will go over well since he'll need to wear them all day. I'm talking them up a lot right now!

And Alex can't get left out of the action:

This is more along the lines of what we've ordered. There is no 1-hour service here so we're expecting them to be done next week sometime. And Ben's will be blue, not pink! They're incredibly flexible and will have plastic lenses so hopefully we'll make it at least a few days before either of the kids destroy them. After he's been wearing them about 6 weeks we'll see the doctor and evaluate his progress then decide if he needs to patch the good eye for a while.

While we're waiting on the big day, we're keeping entertained with all the usual activities. Only now there are two boys raiding our closets for shoes!


And one more cute picture from this morning!

It's weird to be talking about Ben's prematurity again after forgetting it for so long. I really thought we'd made it past all the problems and complications but have been reminded we may see effects for years. I'm thankful all over again for how well Ben has done and for what a healthy and normal little boy he has grown to be. My sister just crossed the 24 weeks and 5 days mark this week in her pregnancy (jump over to her blog if you want to read about it) and it still blows me away at how early Ben was born.