The Eye Doctors Have It

Yesterday, Rugrat had an eye doctor visit. I fully expected to schedule an exam under anesthesia for her at it's end. We changed our insurance to cover these twice-a-year glaucoma exams. Because of her fear, she has made it really difficult to even look at her eyes much less be able to get a pressure on them to check for glaucoma. As a result, we expected to do at least one more exam under anesthesia in the hospital.

I had been working with her at home for weeks. Talking up the doctor. Reminding her that he gave her her glasses. And trying to be excited about the upcoming visit. I even promised her a trip to Orange Leaf if she cooperated.

She definitely wasn't happy to be there and whimpered a little when we were led to the exam room. But I was working at remaining calm myself and distracting her with things on the wall and the movie playing on the tv.

She sat on my lap through the exam. He is pretty thorough and really looked at her eyes for about 10 or 15 minutes. To that point, she had sat on my lap, occasionally pushing back against me. But she wasn't crying or whimpering even though you could see her visibly trying not to especially when I told her she was doing a good job.

Our first visit was a dance. He would come close, she would cry, he would back away. On our second visit, she allowed him to do a little looking but when he touched her, she start crying in earnest. So she had already taken great strides on this one.

Imagine my surprise then when he was able to get pressure readings as well. The little machine he used takes six readings and averages them. He was able to get all six on one eye and three on the other before she started crying hard. That was enough for him though particularly since the readings he got were good.

We were both ecstatic. I couldn't believe how well she had done and he just kept saying over and over how proud he was of her and that we were doing a great job. I don't know if she has begun to trust in our presence or if she is simply understanding more when we explain. Maybe it's a little of both. So far though, all of her doctors have been anxious to prove to her that she doesn't need to fear them.

I had begun to believe that it would be a couple of years minimum before a doctor visit wasn't a frustrating hassle. But as we sat at Orange Leaf enjoying her reward, I found myself looking forward to possibly changing back our insurance next year and maybe some less stressful doctor visits in the future.