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So what was diagnosed from our visit to the eye specialist?
K has an eye disorder known as Estropia in his left eye which will become a permanent squint, if it is not addressed early in his life.
K’s eye disorder is a type of acquired estropia, as he is not born with the condition. He has perfect 6/6 vision on one eye, but slightly long-sighted on the left eye. Infants are actually borned with infantile estropia (long sightedness) in both eyes and will start to grow out of before they turn 7-8 months of age. Estropia was developed in his left eye when one eye gained his perfect sight earlier than his other eye, but he continued to have an over-reliance on the right eye and depended less on the left, hence, the term ‘lazy eye’ is used for this disorder.
The good news is that this condition is not neural related, phew! At 8-10 years of age when child’s eyes reach visual maturity, if discovered at an early stage, 60% of children with this condition will be weaned out of this problem (weaned was the exact word used in the handout that the eye specialist gave to explain the cause of this disorder).
He needs to wear glasses though (sob! which I teared over. I know I am being an idiot to cry over this, but I used to hate wearing glasses while growing up. It’s a vanity thing!). As well as an eye patch to cover his right eye for an average of 1-3 hours a day, so that he can train himself to use his left eye.
I still get upset thinking that my boy needs to wear glasses, as I have been making the effort and taking the precaution to teach him to take care of his eyes. Maybe it is this unrealistic expectation of perfection that I strive for in my child, which makes me upset after hearing that my child has a disorder of any kind, despite being a mild condition.
Hb put it very aptly, “He is not perfect, but he is still our precious boy isn’t it, I am just thankful that it was not diagnosed as a neural issue or a terminal illness and he still will have a chance at having perfect eyesight eventually.”
“But how is he going to play sports well when he wear glasses?” I was diagnosed with short-sightedness at lower secondary and I used to think that was a major liability that I had for sports, as I was a school sprinter and I loved playing ball games.
Hb chided me and said, “There are sports glasses these days and many sports people do not have perfect eyesight. Despite that, they are still able to play their sport exceptionally well.”
I really should stop thinking about what I want my child to become, but to ensure that he will be able to adapt to this change that has been introduced in his life.
K is not perfect and I should not gripe or complain about this little imperfection that he has. I am simply very thankful that he is a very healthy boy.
It has been an emotional roller-coaster for me these few days, but a good reminder for me that imperfect humans like us, often need to experience lack to remind us that we cannot fully depend on ourselves. Perfection and conceitedness is a problem for the human spirit, as it tends to make us forget that we are fallible.
Our need for humility and our imperfections are the very things that will remind us that we need to turn to a big and perfect God that we can still depend on, despite the ambiguity life brings.
