Eye Doctor

We took Ethan to the eye doctor today. Last week my mom noticed that his left pupil was bigger than the right pupil so we called his pediatrician and he recommended we take Ethan to the eye doctor. There are only a few pediatric optometrists in the DSM area so we had to drive over to West Des Moines this morning. The whole office is set up for kids and Ethan and Joel both had a fun time playing with all the toys as well as the wall of toys in office while we waited for the doctor.

The doctor came in and used a lot of different toys to distract Ethan while she looked at his eyes. The wall of toys is different boxes where the animal moves when you flip a switch. Ethan wasn't too distracted by these once the doctor arrived since he and Joel had already tested them all out multiple times... Ethan also had to recognize pictures in different sizes to test his vision. He did a great job with that and followed the doctor’s directions very well.

They then put drops in Ethan's eyes to dilate them and we had to wait 25 min or so for that to work. Ethan didn’t even cry when they did the drops. After the wait was over we saw the doctor again and she did some more testing. This time we were in a different room with different toys so Ethan was a little more distracted by the toys.

The doctor did notice that one pupil was more dilated than the other and it seems to be more prominent in dim light. The good news is she doesn't see any other issues such as poor eye sight, a lazy eye or neurological issues (that is up for debate...they haven't seen him spin around in circles until he falls, or hit himself in the head or ask “why” like rain man all day long). They have asked us to look at old pictures and see if maybe this has been an issue for longer although we just noticed it last week. They have also asked that we come back in 6 weeks to do a follow up exam.

The next steps…if they think this is more serious are head scans, different drops that do some more in-depth testing and possibly driving to the Iowa City medical center. It doesn't seem like there is any concern for this to happen, but as you all know you don't mess around with the eye and if there is reason for concern with the eye it is usually a bad thing. The doctor didn’t make it seem as if any of these things will happen, I think she just discussing things so we would be prepared if it did become necessary.

So, for now no need to worry and we will keep you all posted on anything else we hear.

Happy Holidays to everyone!
Love Kari