Eyeglasses for Olivia

Today we took Olivia to her eye doctor.  Although Olivia was not due for her annual checkup until Summer, the doctor told us last Summer Olivia was already nearsighted and if we saw signs things had worsened he wanted to see her sooner.  Over the past month, we had noticed she was squinting and she was not interested in her books unless they were held very close to her face.  The OT (occupational therapist) also noted the squinting.  So, we decided to error on the safe side and call the doctor who right away confirmed he indeed wanted to see her for himself.

After examining Olivia, which included eye drops that dilated her eyes (and really made her mad), doctor  it was time for Olivia to be fitted for eyeglasses.  He says with her current deterioration of vision an adult would not pass their driver's test. He also noted a school age child would be having significant problems seeing the board, and a teenager would not be seeing the movie screen very well anymore.  We were surprised her vision was as weakened as he had indicated and we were so very grateful we had decided to get her checked out.

Doctor says it could take Olivia a number of months before she will actually wear her glasses full time, and we should not push her, but just take a calm approach and keep putting them on her periodically when she might benefit from seeing the most and hope and pray overtime she accepts them. Some kids take to their glasses faster than others.  We hope Olivia simply likes seeing better and will wear her glasses. But we know this scenario is not very likely, and it will probably take months for her to start wearing them.  Peter and I agreed we need to pray to Saint Lucy for her intercession to God to help Olivia wear her glasses.  And we also need to ask for my Grandma Lu's (Lucille) intercession. Although my Grandma Lu died when I was only 3 yrs old, I would always ask her intercession for the "big things in life" as a child. (Saint Lucy is the saint we Catholics think of when we think of eyes)

I had wondered how a mom and dad pick out eyeglasses for their 21 month old.  So here is what happened. The nice lady brought out a small bag holding about a dozen pairs of very small eyeglasses. She looked at Olivia and grabbed one pair of pretty pinkish frames and slid them on to Olivia's face.  Olivia slid them right back off. But in our moment of seeing them on her face, we knew this was the correct size and frame.  There was a quick ruler measurement taken of Olivia's eyes and the nice lady told us she would order a few combinations of frames for Olivia, all break resistant and hugging the ears as so not to slip off.  The pair Olivia tried on and tossed aside did not have the "ear hugging"mechanism. Hopefully her glasses will stay on her face for a few more seconds.    It should be a few weeks before we have Olivia's glasses.  Peter notes that it may be many months before we manage to get a photo of Olivia wearing her glasses.