If you care . . .: Aargh Matey!

A couple months ago we noticed something different with Easton's eyes. One of his eyes would kind of wander out to the side, not looking at the same thing as his other eye. He had recently smacked his head pretty hard, so we took him to the pediatrician to see if the eye thing was related. He said it wasn't, but that if that was happening we should take him to an ophthalmologist. We didn't make an appointment right away, not sure if we were really seeing a wandering eye. Then we started noticing it more often, and Logan noticed it, too. So we made an appointment. Today we went and it turns out, Easton has intermittent exotropia. It's not "lazy eye", but the opposite of cross-eyed (esotropia). They checked him to see if his depth perception was off, but it was great. His right eye tends to drift the most, and his vision is slightly worse in that eye, so the doctor recommended a patch for the left eye. He only has to wear it for 2 hours each day. Then, we'll go back in 8 weeks and see if it's changed at all. As soon as his depth perception gets affected, he could need surgery. They said it's a common out-patient surgery with no scars or bandages needed. 50-60% of people with intermittent exotropia eventually need surgery.

The best part about the whole experience was finding out how gullible Lauren is. We had Easton put his patch on before the kids came home from school. When Logan came home Easton showed him his patch and told him the doctor took his eye out. Logan laughed and asked how long he had to wear the patch, it didn't even phase him. Lauren, however, thought that was absolutely disgusting. She asked Easton if it hurt and he said yes. He told her that they were going to put it back in, but then they would take it out again. Then when he told her he was going to take off the patch, she begged him to please keep his eye closed because she thought that would really freak her out. She asked him where his eye was, and was told that, of course, it was still at the doctor's office. She came up to me and said that she thought it was all really creepy. Then, when Easton did take his patch off, she asked if he had a fake eye. Easton finally decided to fess up and told her that he was just kidding, he still had his eye, the doctor never took it out. She was SO relieved.

Easton was great at the doctor's office. We were there for an hour and a half and he didn't complain about any of it until the last few minutes when he was ready to leave.