Wednesday

Today Olivia had her first appointment with an Ophthalmologist. We went because she had an eye test at school and they recommend she see one. We have never noticed anything wrong with O’s eyesight. In fact when we are in the car she can see things much further away then I can. ( She can probably do this when she is not in the car as well but it is something I have noticed when we are driving, usually in this way – Mom! LOOK! A Yellow Bug Car! Where? In that Parking lot up on that hill over there. What Parking lot???) But since the form from school had the box STRONGLY RECOMMEND instead of just Recommend checked, we thought we should follow through.
The eye exam went along splendidly. We had a Resident and not a “real” Doctor. The Resident was ok with kids, not great but he was trying. He indicated that all was well and had no idea what may have gone wrong in the eye exam because things looked fine. As a precaution though, just to make sure, he decided he should dilate her eyes and have a look. This of course requires eye drops. Being the good Doctor in training the Resident prep Olivia for the eye drops. This, in theory, is a good idea. It turns bad when you use the words – Do you like to Swim? Well this is going to feel just like when you go swimming and get water in your eyes… Olivia HATES to get water in her eyes while swimming. At the end of last summer she would put her head under the water and swim but only with goggles covering her eyes and a towel close at hand. For the next, what felt like hours but I am sure was only 10 minutes max, Olivia cried and hid and wiggled and occasionally shrieked as the Resident and I tried to talk, bribe, trick and force her into taking the drops. Finally the Resident brought in an assistant who had the drops in Olivia’s eyes within 60 seconds of entering the room. The difference? She had total command of the room. She told Olivia she had a new special way of putting in the drops. Olivia would have to tilt her head back with her eyes closed, several drops would be put on her eyelids and then when we told her to open her eyes she would have to open them and not cry or wipe her eyes. Olivia was still scared but the Assistant explained that as soon as we were done she could go play and that if she put up too big of a struggle and the drops did not go in her eyes we would just have to try again. So - one time without a struggle or several times with struggling. Olivia completely trusted this person and as I said the drops were in within 60 seconds. She did still freak a little but not so much that I could not contain her and quickly calm her. When we walked back into the waiting room several people looked at me and Olivia with concern and I realized – Ah yes, you don’t usually expect a lot of screaming from an Eye Doctor’s Office. I just smiled and let them know we were just fine. After all of that Olivia was seen by the “real” Doctor who seemed a little miffed at the Resident, proclaimed that Olivia has Great eyesight and stated that we should not come back again unless we noticed a problem.