Eye specialist...

Ethan went to the eye specialist today at All Children's Hospital. This is eye specialist number two. I'm too tired to type about it tonight. We spent the day at All Children's Hospital (ACH) for therapy. We had OT from 1030-1130 then speech from 1130-1230. I was to take him to music therapy from 930-1000am but knowing we'd be there all day I passed on music today. We went to the cafeteria at the hospital for lunch. We walked back across the street to the eye specialist. Our appt was at 2pm and we didn't leave his office until after 3pm. We have to get to bed early (yeah right! It's 10pm now and I can still hear Ethan talking in his bed... but he is staying in bed which is a good thing. He'll be tired tomorrow.) We have an early appt tomorrow (930am) with the orothotist (leg brace dr) because I think Ethan has outgrown his current brace and needs a new one. He keeps complaining it hurts and they have already stetched it out twice for him. Plus he keeps growing like a weed. I think it's time for a new one. Thus I will update on both tomorrow. Oh I spoke too soon. Ethan just got out of bed!

Good night.

**updated** 7/31/08
Ethan had an eye specialist, Dr. Silverman. Last year before Ethan got glasses he looked at everything really close up. Dr. Silverman said he as an accuate astigmatism but wouldn't prescribe glasses. Then within a month he developed this "blinking" thing with both eyes. It seemed as if he was trying to focus on something and was blinking to clear his vision. I took him back to Silverman after two months of his first visit. Silverman said Ethan had a "tick" and to take him to a neurologist. I kept reassuring him that Ethan doesnt have a tick. I said that he has a pt, ot, pediatric dr, and a neurologist since 9 months old and none have reported a tick. His comment, well, I will prescribe glasses but he has a tick. I felt like punching him. We got Ethan glasses (a few wks prior to his 3rd birthday) and guess what... the blinking went away! Go figure! We went back to Silverman in June 2008 for his follow up. The first thing Silverman says is, "how is your son's tick?" I felt like jumping out of my seat. I said, amazingly he got glasses and we haven't seen the blinking since. Notice I didn't say tick? I said I even followed up with his neurologist who agreed he doesnt have a tick. Silverman said that ticks just dont go away. He does his eye exam... the entire time I am fuming. Ethan's astigmatism is worst than last year so he prescribes a new script for glasses. I fill the script with new glasses and the "blink" returns on just his right eye but this time it scrunches up his entire face. It looks really bad too. However, it goes away when you removed the glasses.... then returns when you put on his glasses. Silverman says it's a tick. silverman is suppose to be this absolute specialist and each one of Ethan's dr's highly recommend him. I knew I was getting no where. Silverman's bed side manner stinks. He talks down to me... and wont listen to my concerns or try to figure out what is the cause other than saying he has a tick. A stranger over heard me talking about it and she recommeded this highly specialized eye dr at All Children's Hospital (ACH) in St Pete. We are at ACH twice a week so I made an appointment. His name is Dr. Hess. I saw Dr. Hess today. He did agree that with his astigmatism he definitley needs glasses. The day we saw Dr Hess he had one intern and one dr sitting in on the appt with us. Dr Hess could not figure out why he did the blinking but said it was NOT a tick as ticks don't go away when the glasses are off and come back when the glasses are on. Thank God someone was listening to me! He gave me a sheet of paper with pictures of a house, tree, cake, bear, car, bike on it. He said to come back when Ethan could identify these objects. I gave the sheet to ethan and asked him to tell me what they were. He successfully gave me each object by name. Go Ethan! Dr Hess was impressed. He then put the objects on the screen across the room and made them smaller and smaller and asked him to name each. Some where so small I couldn't see them but that's no surprise as I have horrible vision. Ethan named all with glasses and missed a few without his glasses. The positive thing is Dr Hess said his vision, despite the bad astigmatism, is not very different with or without his glasses. He said to have Ethan stop wearing the glasses and come back in 6 months for a follow up. It was funny to see all three dr's try to figure out why he "blinks." They kept trouble shooting everything and asked a bunch of questions. We were in the office for over an hour. Dr Hess was extremely thorough. He looked as his eyes with different machines. He said Ethan's eyes are in good condition and all the inside of his eyes are in good condition (my techinal terms not his). This was very reassuring as I thought that since he has a brain problem I was worried something was starting to go with his vision too. He said he saw no problem with either eye. Praise God! Praise God for Dr. Hess too!