Yesterday, my five year old had her first eye exam. She did great! The eye doctor asked her if she was nervous, because she was talking non-stop, and she said, "No way! I am just SUPER. DUPER. excited!"
See, she thought she was going to be getting glasses. I have them, her dad has them, her big brother has them...she wanted to join the club, I guess. She said she hoped she could get some "pink princess sparkle" glasses.
What ended up happening, though, is that the doctor finished with the normal tests and then moved on to a bunch of tests I'd never seen before. And he re-did them a few times each, which had me concerned.
My daughter has...I guess it's called strabismus? Her left eye tends to drift off to one side when she's not purposely focusing it. It's happened since she was a baby, but her pediatrician never mentioned that it might cause vision problems. As a result of this occasionally wandering eye, her brain shuts off the signal to it- she can't identify some colors with it, and she's very near-sighted in that eye. If not corrected now, it can turn into a lazy eye, and cause problems with reading, and later driving, not to mention that kids can be cruel and she's about to start kindergarten.
So! We've been referred to Children's Hospital in Denver, where they will determine whether or not she needs corrective surgery on that eye.
My husband took this information very well- the doctor explained the situation, told us we should go to Children's, and my husband immediately said "Absolutely. Whatever we need to do." Meanwhile, I sat frozen in my seat, completely unable to process the information. Which is silly...it's not life-threatening. It's not like she's ill. She's not in pain.
But this is the first time I've received news like this. Seven and a half years of being a parent, and I've not once had to deal with anything more serious than an ear infection, a scraped knee, an upset tummy. I've seen other families go through serious things with their children that required multiple surgeries. I've seen other families that have one particularly accident-prone child, resulting in ER visits every other week. And here I am, internally freaking out because my kid might need the third most common type of eye surgery, where the biggest risk involved is that it might not work.
The last year has been a roller coaster. I hate roller coasters. They bring out the worst in me and show me what a wimp I can be.