A day at the Children's Hospital

So today was Izzy's much anticipated hospital day!  She popped right out of bed, was super cooperative eating breakfast and getting dressed and putting her socks and shoes on because she couldn't wait to go :p  What a change from the old days when just walking into the place gave her an anxiety attack!  I think it helped that she has been seeing the ophthalmologist every six months for a while now so she knows that the only not fun part is the eye drops to dilate her eyes and she thinks the way things look when she's dilated are "funny" so she's willing to put up with the drops ;)

We packed her food last night and she helped me pack it into the "lunch purse" today and carried it about the house while everyone else got ready.  It had snowed so we decided to leave straight from dropping S off at school rather than coming home for a little while and it was a very good thing we did.  The roads were bad.  It took us extra long to get S to school but I figured once we got on the expressway, it would be better because they usually plow/salt the expressway first.

We get on the interstate and there we are in the fast lane, passing car after car after car in the right two lanes.  Speed demon, y'all........at a whopping five miles per hour.  HA!  It took us so long to get to the hospital, I was sure they would cancel our appointment and make us reschedule (which I hoped not because we waited a month and a half to get this spot!).  But they were understanding and gracious and sympathetic and got us right back and the appointment started.

Izzy's eyes look great--everything is healthy, no signs of problems (other than the fact that she is nearsighted and has astigmatism).  She did get a script for her first pair of glasses, just to wear when she's trying to see something across a room (watching tv/movies, storytime at the library, etc) and he said it wasn't a big deal if she didn't want to wear them but since she has been complaining things far away are hard to see and wants to get right up on top of things to look at them, it couldn't hurt to let her try glasses and see if it helps.  So she picked out some frames and is very excited for them to be finished so she can take them home and show them off :)

After her appointment was done, we stopped at the information desk and got a pass to go through security to the cafeteria so she could eat her snacks from her "lunch purse".  She carried the pass and showed it to the security guard and was very very proud of herself :)  I was, too!  Once upon a time, she would have been much to anxious to have that interaction.  She loved sitting in the dining room and spent a lot of time waving at and saying hi to everyone dressed in scrubs.  She still has a lot of "white coat" anxiety and tends to shut down if a doctor is wearing a white coat (except for her pediatrician--she LOVES her and instantly is comfortable with her) but scrubs equals nurses to her and she loves nurses :)

Thankfully, the drive home was a little easier and instead of going 5-25 mph we mostly got to do around 55mph so it took much less time getting home :p

Would you like to see my GIANT EYES?

So it was time (past due a little, actually--the offices we go to switched owners and our call to remind us to schedule got lost in the shuffle :p  Reading that the Rathke's cleft cyst sometimes can effect vision reminded to call and set up an appointment) for Iz to visit her ophthalmologist. 

Normally, Iz does great with these appointments and is incredibly compliant and follows directions and tries her best to do whatever the techs and doc ask her to do.  But, as you know, her anxiety, particularly in medical situations, has been through the roof so this particular appointment was challenging ;-)  Her doctor is so great though, and is very patient and Iz really does like her so she relaxed enough for a good exam. 

However, it was one of those visits where she needed her eyes dilated.  She remembered those drops from a year ago and oh, boy, was she MAD.  We got them in, though, and retreated to the dim waiting room to wait for the drops to properly dilate her pupils.  She gave me her sad panda face while we waited:

And then demanded I take a picture of her eye to send to her daddy.  She told me her eyes felt too pointy and she couldn't look at the books they had in the waiting room.

While we were in the waiting room, she got restless because everything she tried to do from looking at books to playing a game on my phone looked funny to her and she didn't like it.  So I was leaning her back down my legs so her head hung down and I tickled her.  She would sit back up and tell me again, so I'd lean her back and tickle her again.  The four year old sitting across from us asked his mom if Izzy was a vampire because her top teeth to the side are pointy LOL  It was adorable.  I promised him she wasn't a vampire and he settled back down.

Soon it was time to go back to the exam room.  She explored a little:

And played peekaboo:

And then finally was ready for her exam.  (Not really, she ended up needing me to come sit in the chair and then she sat in my lap and I helped her hold her head still :p  If I tried to let her do it on her own, she grabbed my hands and put them up to her head.  Silly girl).

So the prognosis is astigmatism is still there, near sightedness has gotten worse but she is just under the cutoff for her age group to get glasses.   So no glasses yet (which made her made--she really wants some and kept howling in the checkout line "I want glasses!  I want glasses!") but I think its almost guaranteed next year.  The rate at which her eyes have gotten worse did slow down, though, so we are going a year instead of six months until her next check up.

S was looking forward to today because he was going for a haircut after school.  His day got even better when a surprise phone call announced his glasses arrived earlier than expected. He was so excited to go pick them up although he does think they feel weird :p
He wasn't thrilled about taking a before picture but he definitely wanted the after picture :)  He wanted to be sure I put that one online LOL

Kiddo is excited about getting his first pair of glasses.  We were thinking it was nearsightedness since both his Dad and I are but it is astigmatism. Which I also have but mildly :p. 7-10 days and he will see clearly!