There is really no way for this not to sound like I am a total and complete alarmist, so, allow me to lay it out for you.
Nate’s eye. When he was born we noticed it seemed a touch lazy but after some time we weren’t sure which one it was, were they both lazy? Sometimes it’s the left, sometimes the right. I took to looking at photographs to determine which one it was, I chose the left.
The non-alarmist side of me decided to wait it out. It wasn’t so bad and you didn’t see it very often so I decided it was okay. Then, I took this picture and realized it was time to do something about it. I mentioned it at his next well check up and his Ped refereed us to Children’s Hospital to have it looked at, though, she couldn’t see it and after checking her notes she had never noticed it in the office. She still thought it was important. She told me that your brain will not allow for double vision and after time it will shut off and you will loose sight in the lazy eye, better safe than sorry, better sooner than later.
That brings us to today. I had lunch with my girlfriend and she asked how on earth do you do an exam on a baby? I had no idea. Turns out it’s quite similar to an adult exam but with lots of cool toys and flahsy blinky things. Not to spoil his impeccable record Nathan was perfect, even when they put the dilating drops in. They warned me that they sting and he would cry, he made a pretty intense face and blinked a few times but was otherwise just fine. The exam continued without incident.
The diagnosis? No lazy eye. Both pupils are in line perfectly. He has astigmatism (common at this age) and is near sided (WHA?) which is rare, most his age are far sighted so this could be a sign that he could be in glasses sometime in elementary school. Not a big surprise, every single person one either side of our family require correction. We go back when he is 3 for his first real vision assessment.
The rest of the diagnosis? It does look like he has a lazy eye, the reason for this is and I quote, “an optical illusion.” (That cant be covered, can it? I hope he writes it differently for insurance.) Nathan’s bridge of his nose is so far, nonexistent. Because of this he has all of the flesh that will one day span the bridge growth and will pull the skin over it and in turn, expose more of his inner eye. In a nutshell, his skin is covering most of the inner white, making it appear that his eyeball turns inward when in actuality it is right where it belongs, you just can’t see the white.
So, yeah. Relieved, sure. Thinking this is the weirdest thing to happen yet? Absolutely.
One thing I know for sure, if/when this kid ends up in glasses I will fall over as that will be the last official step in looking like his father. We shall call him, Mini Mike!