Since my last post about Bean's vision problems, we had another eye doctor appointment. We had been working so hard to do our part and Bean was being so compliant that I was sure the doctor was going to say that her vision had increased double what it had been since the last visit. Just the opposite happened. We found out that poor Bean's eyesight had basically plateaued. The last six weeks of patching had barely made a difference. My heart sank.
The doctor gave us two options: either we patch all day every day, or we patch for 4 hours a day along with giving Bean atropine eye drops in her good eye two times a week. We asked Bean which she would prefer and she said, '4 hours of patching eye drops.'
So I thought 3 hours was going to be tough and all of a sudden we were looking at 4. Bean handled the transition really well, though. And luckily, eye drops weren't a new concept to Bean because she has had an eye infection before and had to use eye drops then. These atropine eye drops are interesting, though. Basically they are the same kind of thing that doctors use to dilate their patients eyes when they go in for a routine eye exam. These must be super strength though because we give her a drop on Saturday and a drop on Sunday and her eyes pretty much stay like this for the whole week:
The result is that the 'good eye' is basically blurred 24/7, forcing her bad eye to work nonstop while she's awake. We have no idea whether or not it's working, but she has an appointment at the end of this month and I'm really crossing my fingers this time.
It kind of freaked me out at first. In a trauma situation one of the first things the doctors are looking for are blown or uneven pupils. I told S that we'd better be really careful to not get into a car accident while she's on the drops because I'm pretty sure the emergency responders would freak out and she would be subject to all sorts of scans.
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