And I have proof. Who out of Jared and I ever wears glasses or has ever worn glasses? I have never even worn contacts although I am pretty sure if I had to my eyelids would win and I would never get the things near my eyeballs. Here we are finding that another one of our children is quite blind and we had no idea. Eventually his prescription will be a +6 but due to the drastic change of going from 0 he is starting out as a +4. So after a few months of Maxwell regularly complaining, "my head hurts." I started thinking maybe I should take him to the doctor. Then he started saying, "My eyes cross when I try to aim." which he also used to describe his complaint to the eye doctor. I thought he was talking about focusing in general, but I found out today he was talking about when he is aiming to shoot with his dart rifle. I spent a few weeks watching his eyes to see if either were crossing. I witnessed a little bit of floating by one eye at a time. After a little bit of worry and not wanting to seem like the crazy, overreacting mother that I am I decided to take him to the eye doctor. I figured a visit to the pediatrician over headaches would start with the question, "Has he seen the eye doctor?" and as no referral is required for vision I figured I would rule out that step first.

For your information the first while of complaints regarding headaches only happened when Maxwell was bored or tired. I thought there was a possibility he was using the complaint to garner sympathy from his mom. It has only been in recent weeks that the headaches were happening when he was having fun or watching tv, So I wasn't neglecting him.

I thought it would be weeks before I got him in. Our previous optometrist under our insurance a year ago was always booked up weeks in advance. I don't know if that is a sign of the economy or just that specific doctor's office. Yesterday morning began with Maxwell pressuring me to take him to the eye doctor so I began my research on the Internet as to where our present insurance was accepted. I was wrong and ended up making an appointment in Scottsdale and driving to Scottsdale. Another office had told me that that Dr specializes in children. After they ran my insurance, (which I had provided over the phone prior to driving up there) they informed me the out of pocket would be $70 not $15. Then the nice workers told me of a pediatric optometry office that I was covered at that was only a few miles away from my home. I scheduled an appointment there for that afternoon and they were kind enough to run my insurance before having me come in.

Optometrists have lots of big terms which mean lots of little things. After the initial checks he said his prescription was a +1.5 which is not bad for his age and Maxwell did have an issue that could lead to lazy eye, free-floating eyes or potential crossing. He assured me it was a minor issue. This concerned me so I asked a million more questions, relayed some family history including our nephew whose eye crossed and had to have surgery. I really didn't want to leave it unchecked for an entire year although that is the only appointment our insurance will cover for a year. The doctor, before my freak-out, had decided to do a dilation to see if the current farsightedness was as minor as it first appeared and if it was Maxwell wouldn't get glasses at this time but maybe in a few years he would. With dilation we ended up with obviously much worse vision. The details of how this works is the dilation relaxes the eye muscles so the child cannot strain their eyes to focus. Maxwell has been keeping his eyes so strained that he had improved his vision greatly but still had rather distorted images coming in. The problem with leaving their eyes straining to see is that one day the muscles or the brain might tire out. And you end up with lazy eyes, crossed eyes, or floaters.

Maxwell is farsighted and today we went and picked out his glasses which he will dutifully start wearing all waking hours when they arrive in approximately 2 weeks. I will dutifully purchase a geek cord to keep the glasses attached to his head and will "strap him in" every morning. Farsighted kids can strain their eyes to "see" which is why they are harder to figure out and harder to get to wear their glasses. He's pretty excited about the glasses. (I think the eye strain was starting to get to him.) My vanity is having a hard time with this. Glasses just naturally fit in with Xander's personality. I felt bad about how blind he was and that one of his eyes was getting lazy before we took him in but the idea of him wearing glasses just fit. Maxwell on the other hand is a giant goof ball and tease. I think he looks cute with glasses but definitely different then the way I envision him. Here's the super lucky part: the doctor is trying to have him up to full strength by 6 months so we get to go in for 2 visits not covered under insurance and possibly walk away with 2 more prescriptions not covered by insurance. To that I say thank goodness for Costco. I paid outright for his glasses there today which was less than purchasing them at the doctor's office after the 20% coverage we have for eyeglass purchases.

The new insurance, although less coverage then the prior insurance, continues to be a real blessing. Our last insurance did not offer any pediatric optometrists. I was amazed at how much more they were able to figure out with the proper equipment for the young set then Xander's doctor has ever figured out. I am excited to see what Xander's next prescription will be when I take him in although I am not looking forward to forking out the $165 for glasses. I think they will be able to get him up to full strength in one visit which will be nice. Our prior eye doctor believed in a rather gradual increase in the prescription and stuck to the once a year appointments which the insurance covers. The doctor explaining how farsighted kids strain their eyes to see really makes sense. Xander (as does Maxell) "sees" just fine without his glasses although he prefers to wear them.

Lengthy I know, but there were a lot of details. And yes I will post a picture (of him with his glasses on) when he has his glasses. If you want to be among the first to see him with glasses you can visit in 2 weeks from today.