We went to Oklahoma City this past Friday to meet with an eye doctor. Okay, he's not just an eye doctor his title is Professor of Ophthalmology, Pediatric Ophthalmology, and Neuro-Ophthalmology. Dr. Michael Siatkowski was wonderful.
Friday morning started off so stinking early. If you know myself and my kids, we are not really early risers. Will usually sleeps till 8am, and sometimes even 8:30am. Ella, prior to starting school, has been known to sleep till 10am. So, when Kristie arrived at 6:30am we were all just beginning to move. By the time we got out of the house and got gas in the car, it was 7:15am and we were heading north. Kristie was WONDERFUL and stayed home with Will all day long (and he only took a 25 min nap, so she had a rough day). Ella, Joe and I headed to Oklahoma City. It was a great drive. Three hours straight up 35 and we arrived a little after 10am...and our appointment was at 11am...I love to be early to appointments. The actual appointment took FOREVER. I have to say, without Joe I might have sad down and cried. Three hours in a doctors office will put strain on any child. Add in the fact that Ella can't walk around (or even crawl) to burn off steam and it gets touchy. She actually fell asleep halfway through the appointment when they were trying to run tests...it was actually funny. Eye exams and vision tests usually require you to have your eyes open...and actually care. She literally fell asleep in Joe's lap during the test...then they put in the drops to dilate her eyes and she woke right up...silly girl.
Results...GREAT!!!! It's very rare that we get a great doctors appointment. Usually we walk out with NO idea what we just heard or what to do next. While we feel a little bit that way, we have a lot of clear ideas of her vision. Ella sees the world differently than the rest of us. This is so evident on how she acts, but it's more than that...her brain actually processes the info. Most of us see with both of our eyes and then our brain combines the information and processes the picture (amazing, I know). Ella usually only sees out of one eye at a time, so her brain on processes one eye at a time...so she has to move her head and her eyes differently than we do so that she can get the whole picture. Really, she has adapted her own way of seeing. In fact, we've done two surgeries to correct her "lazy" eye and it keeps drifting outwards, this is because her eye drifting is her adaptation to be able to see more, when she can't get her motor skills to cooperate. All of that to say that the girl can adapt to her situation. She amazes us. So, she sees really well, just differently and sometimes it looks awkward. We can't hold her head still and make her look at us with both eyes, because that keeps her from being able to adapt and see us the way she sees best. That will be hard to get used to.
On the way back Ella and I both slept...and my wonderful husband drove in silence. I think we were all relieved to have had a good appointment.
We have been talking about blessings so much in our scripture memory, Sunday School and both of Dr. Jeffress's services. I know that Ella is a huge blessing. Sometimes, selfishly, I think that she's OUR blessing, but I'm reminded that God has big plans for our little girl. He saved her from death and picked a big road for her...she's filling those shoes nicely and we are so excited to get to be along for the ride.
"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33