She couldn't see and we didn't know.

Last month I discovered that our medical insurance changed and that now eye exams were covered for the kids free of charge. So, I started booking appointments. I started with Q because he's home during the week, then I did Sophia and Isabella because they are the oldest and have never been checked, then Ava.

Today was Ava's day. Everyone else has been during the last 2 weeks and everyone has gotten the talk about not trying to lie to the doctor because they can tell if you are lying. The doctors have special machines that can gauge the level of vision that you have. They can see through your eyes and into your brain even. The kids have been doing wonderful. of course, the older two wanted glasses because of the fashion statement you can make with glasses. They still did a really good job of not lying and telling the truth and although they had some minor problems with their eyes they do not need glasses. Then today Ava goes through the standard questions, states that she doesn't have any problems what so ever and we're thinking we're golden here, right?

Wrong....the first test they do the nurse takes Ava to the machine with the hot air balloon on the screen. She comes out of the room and says, "do you have the glasses that Ava normally wears with you?" HUH?.....

Um, Ava doesn't wear glasses, why? She said, oh well...maybe the machine is off. She was having a hard time sitting still because she had to balance on her knees for the test because she's short.

Oh, OK. The doctor sits Ava down in his chair and gets straight to work. Covers the left eye and Ava reads the chart perfectly. Covers the right eye and Ava just sits there. Now, I've sat through 3 of these tests in the last 2 weeks and I know now that she should be able to read that. He makes the font smaller and she's able to read some of it but not all of it, etc. I'm getting nervous now.

He turns the lights back on and says, well...Ava needs glasses. She's 20/300 in her left eye and 20/20 in her right eye. Basically, she is farsighted and pretty badly so. All her short little life her right eye has compensated for her left eye and her left eye has gotten lazy and doesn't even try anymore. She has to be patched 2 hours a day to strengthen the left eye and she has to wear glasses that will basically be clear on the right and coke bottle on the left. He "hopes" that by the time she is able to drive in 12 years that she'll actually be able to legally drive. WHAT?! Mom's water works start flowing.

He asked if she is clumsy. I said, absolutely not, she's the most coordinated of all the girls. She's my ballerina and everything, so graceful. We've always called her the engineer because she's been able to manipulate small items and had excellent fine motor skills from early on. He said that she has some stereo vision which is good, but even that is behind what it should be and that luckily she'll only have to wear her glasses for school and not for ballet or soccer.

She picked out a cute pair of frames just like her best friend Brookie's and they come in next week. I know she'll be just fine but it's so hard to find out that after nearly 6 years your child has been struggling to see and you just never knew it.