When I went on maternity leave with each child I had to fill out all kinds of forms. Forms for FMLA leave, forms for insurance, forms for short term disability, etc. I would have swore I added my two youngest to the vision insurance then.
Two different pediatricians stopped and looked at his eye starting at just before he turned 4 years old. They thought they saw something. Both of them did visual test and tracking tests. Both of them said No it wasn't what they thought. They thought he might have had a slight lazy eye but he didn't.
Fast forward to Kindergarten registration this spring. There was an organization doing vision screenings. The lady had all kinds of cool gadgets and tested his vision. Long story short here she said she thought he had a lazy eye. She had me do the tests and showed me what my son missed. One of the things was very obvious. She filled out a paper for me. She said "you'll have to take him to this certain pediatrician because they're they only ones that deal with lazy eye in someone so young. It's not a big deal, I had one. All I had to do was wear a patch on my eye for a month and it was better". So I called my vision insurance to make sure my son was covered. He was never added to our vision insurance. This was the very end of April. I called my HR department at work. They said there was no way to add him until open enrollment which was the beginning of June. I didn't really think it was a big deal because by this time several people had told me "oh he'll just have to wear an eye patch for a month or they might dilate his eyes with drops and he'll be fine"
So we got him on the insurance and scheduled an appointment, which happened to be this morning. My hubby took him because I had just worked 7 days straight and this is my only day off in 2 weeks. Now I wish I would have gone. My husband called me and said the eye doctor freaked him out a little bit. He wanted to tell me over the phone but I couldn't hear him well and the baby was crying at my feet so I told him to wait until he got home. He said the eye doctor looked at him and the first thing he said was "This is bad, he's never gonna be able to drive a car". He said the doctor took almost a scolding manner to him to tell him that if we would have brought him in when he was 2 that he could have fixed it, no problem. He said 5 (which is how old he is now) there's a slight chance they could fix it. If we would have waited until 7, there would have been no chance of fixing it. My husband said he told the doctor it wasn't even noticed or brought up until he was almost 4. 2 pediatricians checked him out and said it wasn't what they thought it was. They dilated both my sons eyes. We have to go get him glasses that have a strong prescription in one and and nothing in the other. He has to wear them for 6 weeks. If that doesn't help or he refuses to keep them on then we have to do a patch for a month. They told us they didn't even know for sure any of this would work to fix his eye. But we have to try.
Now I sit here, feeling guilty. I feel like "what if I would have took him the first time the pediatrician said something then debunked it". Or if by the 2nd time, it was brought up, I should have said, maybe I'll make him an appointment. Of course, we would not have had the insurance still because my work never added him to the insurance. Then I wonder, should I have paid out of pocket. Then the other side is saying, yea but if I would have, the way this eye doctor is talking, we still wouldn't have caught it in time since we didn't even know about it until he was almost 4. I don't know... I'm going through the what if's, the anger at myself, the sad thought that my son might not be able to go through the driving priviledge that so many teens look forward to. I just hope we can get this straightened out (literally get his eye straightened out).
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