Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Visit to the Opthalmologist

Well, as I mentioned earlier, Avery has to visit with a pediatric opthalmologist every three months.  The purpose of this visit is- mostly to check the pressure levels in her eyes, monitoring for any signs of glaucoma.  Since Avery was just three months old - she has always handled this test like a champ!  The nurse will put drops in her eyes to numb them.  This stings a little but Avery quickly forgets about it.  Then the nurse uses a tool to touch Avery's eye which then reads the pressures.  As you can imagine, as Avery gets older- this test will get more difficult because she's not as easily distracted and can get annoyed quite quickly.  ;-)  After the second try by the second nurse to get the reading on Avery's eyes- it was obvious that the bottle and the light chaser were no longer working to distract her.  We were scared that they might suggest that Avery be put under anesthesia in order to get a reading.  But thanks to our wonderful vision teacher, who accompanies us on our opthalmologist visits- we persuaded the nurse to give us a few minutes and try one more time.  Luckily, her teacher had also brought her Ipad ("Eye-Pad")- which is one of Avery's favorite toys ever.  A musical app distracted her just enough to get the readings in both eyes.  The pressures were lower than before and I'm hoping that we found our new trick so that we can prolong any chance of having to be put under to have the pressure test done.  The doctor then came in and was very pleased with what he was seeing with Avery's eyes and gave nothing but a good report.  Our next appointment is in January and in the summer we will meet with a pediatric opthalmologist and glaucoma specialist at the Duke Eye Center. 
Yay Avery!!!

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