My Son is Considered Legally Blind....

In one eye. My husband and I are completely shocked but so grateful that we followed up on the kindergarten eye exam he had done a few weeks ago. The eye exam showed he had a vision issue in his left eye and recommended seeing an eye specialist. We had that appointment yesterday and the results were shocking to us. His right eye is perfectly normal, 20/20, his left eye- 20/400, which according to the doctor makes him legally blind in his left eye. He is five years old! We, quite frankly, had no idea he even had a problem with his sight, so the information given to us yesterday left us reeling.

The doctor, who was phenomenal, said there wasn't anything we could do to change what happened, that kids our son's age don't often report a vision problem and because Max's right eye is simply perfect, Max doesn't even know he can't see well out of his left eye. His right eye has taken over and done all the work, which has tricked his brain into thinking everything in his vision is okay. Because we caught this before he turned 8 or 9, the doctor says with treatment it will hopefully get better.

He is going to have to wear glasses, and we ordered him a really cool pair with a Superman case. In a few weeks after he gets acclimated to the glasses, he will have to wear a patch over his good eye. This will force the left eye to become stronger and hopefully improve his vision in that eye. I am so sad that he will have to wear a patch, mostly because I don't want him to get teased at school, and yes, he will have to wear the patch while at school. He won't have to wear it all day, but it will have to be worn at school. The thought of him getting teased because of this makes my heart hurt.

I realize though, that this is somewhat fixable. His vision will hopefully improve, but the dr forsees him always having to wear glasses, but not with such a strong prescription in the left eye. I also realize how lucky we are, because as I was sitting there listening to the dr tell me that his condition is serious, I realized it could have been worse. I could have been sitting there listening to the doctor tell me that my son had a tumor that was pressing on his retina, which was causing his vision issue. Once I heard that he was healthy and it wasn't due to a tumor, I realized that we can handle whatever needs to be done because we were blessed that it was just simply a fluke in his eyesight.

He is such a neat kid, a great athlete and super smart, I know that glasses will just make him even more special.