As a child, I was plagued with poor vision and began wearing glasses in elementary school in order to see writing on the chalkboard. Everyone in my family (siblings, parents, grandparents) wore eyeglasses; I was so excited to finally have my own. It wasn’t until I was much older that I learned more about the myriad of vision issues in my family including: myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), astigmatism, amblyopia, glaucoma, and macular degeneration – to name a few. When I married my husband, who also wears glasses or contacts – we knew we were destined to have children with poor vision like us.
And so it goes, we were not surprised when our son needed glasses in first grade. He is myopic with astigmatism like both of his parents. His vision issues in the grand scheme of things are actually quite routine. But, being on the Autism Spectrum makes his vision issues more complicated and make visits to the ophthalmologist challenging. It also means he is tough on eye care and we have spent a small fortune on keeping glasses in one piece and on his face where they belong. Since her older brother wore glasses, I figured that my daughter would need glasses down the road also. I was also hopefully optimistic that she’d have an easier go of things at the eye doctor (and be kinder to her glasses!). If only it was that simple. My daughter has a vision condition called Anisometropic Amblyopia. Amblyopia (Lazy Eye) is a neurological condition resulting from a difference in prescription between the two eyes. In my daughter’s case, the vision in her weak (left) eye had become suppressed and her strong (right) eye was doing all the work. Unlike the rest of the family, she does not have myopia (nearsightedness), but is farsighted (hyperopic). We are working hard to build up her vision in her weak eye through occlusion (wearing an eye patch).
My daughter was the catalyst for me to become very involved with Vision Issues, in particular advocating for children’s vision and Amblyopia. You can follow my daughter’s Amblyopia Journey at the Amblyopia Kids site.
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