Miss Adeline is going to start wearing glasses. It doesn't thrill me, to say the least, but as it sinks in, I am becoming more and more comfortable with the idea. Adeline has an eye that turns in toward her nose when she tries to focus on something near. She has some farsightedness in the eye. Her eye sight isn't terrible but it does make her strain to focus which tugs her eye inward. According to the doctor, this is very common in the average population but preemies have a lower tolerance to the farsightedness. Thus, lazy eyes are more common in the world of prematurity.
Upon hearing the news, I immediately made a second opinion consult. I feel that we saw the best of the best doctors. Adeline's regular ophthalmologist is the chair of her department at DuPont and the second opinion came from a MD/Ph.D. The two doctors differed in their approach. Dr. Lehman from DuPont wanted to put Adeline in bifocals but Dr. Forbes from Chop opted for single vision lenses. His opinion was that starting with the least amount of correction is better in the long run. If single vision lenses fix the problem, Adeline will have the option of jumping into contacts at a young age. Bifocals often become a dependency problem which is hard to wean from. Contacts are out of the question if bifocals are in the picture.
So here we are. At age four Miss Belle has to start wearing glasses. It saddens me as it is just one more thing that sets her apart from the average population. For a girl who has worked harder than any of us will ever know to try and fit under the "normal" bell curve, I feel that glasses is a set back. Glasses, in conjunction with her raspy voice, orthotics, and developmental delays come together as a package that screams premature. I never hide the girls' early birth but have always been very thankful that we look perfectly normal to the untrained eye. I just hope glasses don't tip the scale in the other direction.
