Eye Tests {The Ordinary Moments}

I’m sure I’ve mentioned on the blog in the past that I had a squint as a child and had corrective surgery when I was very young. Since then my eyes have been fine – I use them independently though and my bad eye will go slightly lazy if I’m really tired. I have also always worn glasses and had a period after the operation of wearing a patch over my good eye to strengthen the bad one.

So, since I had the children I have been paranoid about their eyes – almost neurotic. But having spoken to my optician I have been assured that if the children get to seven and don’t develop a squint then they never will – apparently your eyesight is at it’s peak at this age. But even so I always look at their eyes without even thinking about it each morning and again before they go to bed. I notice if their eyes look tired and have always noticed how far away things are that they’re looking at – and the same when reading books up close.

But a couple of weeks ago LP had an eye test with her school nurse – at the same time as being weighed and measured. That afternoon a letter came home to tell us that LP couldn’t read the smallest letters on the chart and she must go and see an optician.

I admit I had a bit of a meltdown at this. It was just so unexpected and so … blunt. I immediately rang our optician and made her an appointment for a few days later. Over the next few days I calmed down about it all, thought that the school nurse was probably being overcautious or had a certain amount of boxes to tick and referrals to make but in the back of my mind I was worried that LP’s eyesight was going down the same route mine had – a childhood full of trips to the optician and specialist eye doctors at the hospital.

The optician appointment came and LP was an absolute star. She was happy that it was a lady and sat proudly in the chair, loving that it moved up and down. Through the appointment she saw everything perfectly, read all the letters and followed the pen when she needed to. At one point she had to wear special glasses that made her vision blurry, I think to put her eyes under strain to see how they coped and I could tell that LP didn’t like that bit at all but she carried on following the instructions and being so brave. Considering it was an environment that she had never been exposed to in the past I was just so proud of her.

In the end we were told that LP’s eyesight was perfect – better than 20/20 vision and she could read all the letter, even the really small ones. It was a relief but it was also a great introduction to LP’s regular optician visits.