Amblyopia Q&A

Jordan and Dale and I went to the optician this morning and tried out some frames. He looked great in them! Sorry, no pictures yet, but soon. When the optician saw Jordan's prescription, she gave a little gasp at how strong it is (not in his presence, thank goodness). "This is going to make such a difference for him," she said. That's nice to hear.

In other eye news, I called Jordan's ophthalmologist with questions, and got answers. (Note: A perk of this whole experience is that now I know for sure how to spell ophthalmologist.)

Q. Are there especially stereoscopic activities that it would be helpful for Jordan to participate in while his right eye is getting up to speed with the new glasses? Maybe catching a ball?

A. There's no need to devise especially challenging activities. "He'll be getting that challenge every time he opens his eyes," she said. Sheesh.

Q. How is amblyopia detected? When he comes back for more testing in three months, how will we know if his right eye is in good shape, or if we need to patch him?

A. I thought this would be a straightforward question, but she kept answering me with these odd non-answers, such as "Amblyopia is decreased vision." Do you mean blurry? "Not necessarily blurry, no." Well, what then? Dim? "Whatever the patient reports." Huh? "People describe it in different ways." Doctors sometimes treat people like idiots, and I was frustrated with the conversation, but I did manage to establish that if Jordan could see well with that eye with the corrective lens, he wouldn't need patching. I thought, how would he not see well through the corrective lens? That's what it's FOR.

I learned more from an adult friend who has amblyopia. He said that through one eye, glasses or no glasses, he doesn't see well. I asked what exactly he meant by that and he said, "It's very hard to describe. It's like if something is in that visual area, I can't attend to it." Is it blurry? No. Dark? No. Just kind of ... nothing. Eventually he expressed that it was sort of like peripheral vision, in which things are visually present, but are neither in focus nor consciously attended to. Except, he says, his peripheral vision is better than his central vision in that eye, so he consciously interpolates. Doing this is very tiring.

Q. What about Aaron?

A. Testing Aaron is optional. They test babies as young as six months. If we suspect something, we should go ahead. We don't, but we didn't with Jordan, either. We haven't decided what to do yet.