James's eye update...and new glasses!

Last week we took James back to see Dr. Cornock in Comox for his routine follow-up appointment and we're happy that she finally increased his prescription to +3 so we could go ahead and get him his new glasses. For awhile now I felt like his current frames were almost too small for his face and was hoping that with this appointment the Dr. would decide he had adjusted to wearing glasses enough that the prescription could be increased. She said this +3 prescription will most likely stay his prescription for as long as he wears glasses. I'm glad to hear that as I was also starting to feel that he wasn't seeing as well with the prescription he had.

We found out once and for all that James is far sighted which means that he can't see far away without his glasses. He also has an eye turn that causes him not to see well close up either, which is why he wears the glasses all the time. Nowadays when he doesn't have them on his good eye almost instantly turns in to compensate for how poorly his bad eye sees. He rarely, if ever, takes them off during the hours that he is awake. The only thing I notice he really wants to take them off for is when he is looking in the viewfinder part of my camera to take a picture.

Dr. Cornock said that we could start discussing contact lenses with James once he reaches teenage hood if he so chooses to want to touch his own eyeballs (I swear I will never tell James how much that grosses me out and how I could NEVER do it....I'll let him decide how he feels about it first!). She recommended that we get him some swimming goggles as he does love the pool, and that he wears his old pair for any sports like hockey or soccer to cut down on the risk of his good new glasses getting scratched or damaged. We've been really lucky over the past 10 months at how well the first pair held up, but you just never know as he gets older how long any further pairs will last.

As for surgery, Dr. Cornock said that with James's eye turn problem that the surgery that is available now to patients may not work well for him and that unfortunately there appears to be a high rate of regression in some cases. But, she did say that a lot can change and advance in technology in the many years between now and when she recommended he could have surgery at around age 21.

It's good to finally know what his actual vision problem is, as well as his prescription and how it will be treated. Since he got the glasses last March we have been a bit up in the air about these questions and feel better now knowing the plan for the next few years. For now Dr. Cornock will continue to monitor his eye growth and to follow whether the eye turn problem gets worse or stays the same but once she feels comfortable that he is growing properly then we will be turned over to our local optometrist here in town for further follow-ups. We already go to Westview Optometry on an almost weekly basis for glasses adjustments so I'm happy to know that in the coming years that it will be our only place we will need to take him.....although the free trips to the Island aren't bad either!!

I seriously love this new picture of James, and his new glasses are awesome. I love that I can finally see his eyes again. I have felt for awhile now that most of the time when I took pictures of him that I was always seeing the top of the rims instead of his beautiful blue eyes. I think these new bigger frames are going to help with that, plus they just make him look even more grown up!!

I love this kid when he smiles at me like this. I see such a light and love in his eyes and he makes me so very proud of the little man that he is already.

And here is one of me and James tonight too.