Today was crazy hair day at school, he looks so cool!
I had a parent teacher conference with Billy's teacher today. I explained the findings at the eye doctor. She was surprised as she said that he hasn't ever complained about not being able to see things. I was surprised that as a teacher she hadn't heard about Amblyopia before. That just confirmed to me that there isn't enough awareness out there. And also confirmed to me that parents need to know about it so they can have their children screened to protect their vision.
I have started to seriously think about what it is I can do to encourage awareness and hopefully make it mandatory that all children be screened by a professional ophthalmologist before entering Pre-K or Kindergarten which ever they are entering first. I know that when Billy had his Kindergarten physical they half-a@@ screened his eyes. They checked with only both eyes open and not each eye individually. So they passed him. It was as though he just kept falling through the cracks.
If he would have been screened before kindergarten he would have been 5 years old. We could have started the therapy and he had an 80% chance of completely restoring his vision in that eye. The younger the better the chance. If he was 3 his chance could have gone up to 100%. That is what is frustrating about this. Part of you feels so guilty for not knowing something was wrong and part feels guilty for not being more pro-active on all medical screenings.
I have started to seriously think about what it is I can do to encourage awareness and hopefully make it mandatory that all children be screened by a professional ophthalmologist before entering Pre-K or Kindergarten which ever they are entering first. I know that when Billy had his Kindergarten physical they half-a@@ screened his eyes. They checked with only both eyes open and not each eye individually. So they passed him. It was as though he just kept falling through the cracks.
If he would have been screened before kindergarten he would have been 5 years old. We could have started the therapy and he had an 80% chance of completely restoring his vision in that eye. The younger the better the chance. If he was 3 his chance could have gone up to 100%. That is what is frustrating about this. Part of you feels so guilty for not knowing something was wrong and part feels guilty for not being more pro-active on all medical screenings.
No comments:
Post a Comment