OK, we had our appt at 7:30am. I didn't want to be late so we arrived at 7:15. I had already filled out all the paperwork they sent to me so all I had to do was hand them that and we were signed in.
I also brought several handouts. Carl's speech therapist wrote us a nice note explaining a little history and that "Carl is able to name his colors with 100% accuracy. Carl's deficits with color identification are language based, not visually based. Carl does not suffer from color blindness. he does have a language delay affecting his ability to expressively name abstract items and occasionally, colors."
I also brought along a copy of the vision test from pre-school that was clearly stamped, "no problems noted". If you have not seen one of these photo vision tests, they take a photo of your child's eyes very close up. The photo has total red-eye... you know, the look you want to avoid in your everyday photos. But, in this test, having that totally red eye allows them to detect problems. One little girl in their class wears glasses, so her mom let me see her test without glasses. She had big yellow crescents in her eyes. Another little girl's test came back that she showed some far sightedness. Her eyes also displayed this same yellow crescent shape in each eye. Both Gretchen & Carl's had no yellow at all. So, they liked seeing that. And, without me saying anything about the fact that I sort of knew how to read the test - the nurse told me, "If there is an issue, you will see some form of discoloration in the eyes. Either a yellow spot or even a full cloudiness."
And, I brought along a copy of the prescription the other office gave me for his near sighted eyeglasses.
So, we were the first ones into the office, but not quite the first ones called back. It wasn't a long wait, but the office was filling up quickly. At 7:30 am. We first saw a nurse who took my papers and thanked me for bringing all of that in. She asked me basically why we were here and I explained the other appointment. She smiled and shook her head, "They don't see many children in that practice."
Then she started off with the color blindness test. There were many differences in her test. Yes, it was the same concept - dots on a page with a shape that would stand out to someone who could differentiate colors. But, her book was physically bigger. Each page had 2 shapes on it somewhere. Either a triangle, a circle or a square. And she gave Carl a make-up brush to "paint" the shapes he could see. Adding this activity to the test kept him focused and kept him from realizing he was answering a quiz. He rocked the test! She even asked him on a couple pages, "What colors do you see?" and he got them correct each time.
The next test was 3D vision. This one he kind of drifted off on. He got one answer right and he did explain to her than some animals were jumping out at him, but he wasn't staying focused with her line of questioning. She wasn't phased or frustrated at all. She wasn't terribly worried and we moved on. I wasn't overly worried either since that was the one test he did fine with at the other office. I knew he could see the 3D-ness.
He was excited for the next test because it involved another pair of glasses to wear. This pair was a John Lennon shape frame and one lens was red while the other one was green. She then had a flashlight with 4 dots showing... 2 red, 1 green and 1 white. Twice - from different distances in the room - he told her there were 4 dots showing. She explained to me that this test showed his eyes were working together. If they weren't, he wouldn't have been able to see both red and green dots and would have had a lower number for his answer. Cool!
Next, eye chart exam. She asked me, "Does he know all his letters?" and let him use the letters! No stencil pictures! Each line she showed him had 5 letters. She kept showing him progressively smaller lines and he was doing great. She was able to get him to cover one eye with a plastic tool even. He missed some... calling a D an O. Things like that. She told me he tested 20/40 and that was great!
Gretchen was with us. This whole time, she did great sitting nicely or on some tests, standing next to Carl so she could see what was going on. Luckily, she didn't feed him any answers.
Then, the doctor came in and talked to us. He gave Carl another vision test with a tongue depressor. It had 3 or 4 lines of letter on it. A very tiny eye chart test. He was sort of covering one of Carl's eyes and moving this little eye chart around in front of him. Each time, Carl read all the letters perfectly. The doctor said he was trying to make Carl's eyes turn in like I had described and since he couldn't bring it out, that was a positive thing. The doctor even made his own eye turn in and asked if it was similar to this. yes! It was! And he asked me about when it happens. Turns out, this is most likely perfectly normal because it happens when he is tracking something. The doctor said if it happens when Carl is reading something and one eye just goes limp on it's own, that would be a vision problem. He said it will either... get better, stay the same or get worse. Ha Ha. If it does get worse, I am welcome to bring him back in.
The doctor had read Tracey's note before entering the room and he declared Carl not color blind based on the note and the test today! Big sigh!
Next they dilated his eyes. We returned to the waiting room for about 30 minutes to let the drops take effect. Oh - and this waiting room was filled with toys, books and a children's movie playing in TV.
When we got called back in, the doctor tested Carl's eyes for glasses. He did in fact find a prescription close to that of the other office and noted some astigmatism as well. But, since Carl tested at 20/40 ("he'd pass the NC driver's license test") and this prescription was so slight, the ophthalmologist recommended not filling the prescription. He said, "If glasses cost $5 a pair, I'd say go for it. But, they don't." He said since it was such a small change, Carl would most likely take his glasses off and lose them. He assured me that there was no physical harm in letting Carl go without glasses now. He even said his own daughter kept testing near sighted on the eye charts, but he held off until her teachers at school reported it being a problem.
He said to definitely come back if I feel the eye crossing is getting much worse because then we'd have somewhere to work from. But, as it stands now, he'll just see us back in 12 months for a re-check. The receptionist told me that if I need to change this appt for any reason, they are booking 5-6 months out, so call very early to do that. Whoa.
So - there's the update. This appointment went so much better than the last one! All the positive things I have heard about this specialist were correct. The office was very patient and thorough.
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