Meg has had a problem with her vision since 2nd grade. It started with bright lights, blurred vision, wavy letters and severe migraines. We have been on a journey since then to get her help with it. It seemed to be better, but this year the special needs teacher had her for ISTEP testing and realized that Meg could not sit through a 50 minute test on the computer without excruciating pain. As I checked her visits to the nurse for headaches this year and came up with a number over 80 (in a 180 day school year), I realized that we were back to where we were several years ago.
Thus, the adventure has begun. We visited her eye doctor and he said that he cannot help her anymore. So, he referred her to a different optometrist, one that specializes in vision therapy. Meg and I went today and had a great first impression. First he told her that sign of a genius is having a messy desk, justifying Meg's lack of organization over the years (in her eyes at least.) Then, he diagnosed her with convergence insufficiency, found astigmatism in her eye, was able to tell that both eyes tend to drift out as she has to concentrate for long periods of time and best of all had a plan of action. She is getting new glasses that should help and then is starting vision therapy in three weeks.
We are excited and hopeful. The goal is to reduce her trips to the nurse by the time she is in high school. Our middle school is small and very flexible. She can leave as she needs to when her head is killing her. They make allowances for her when she tests, and when all else fails they send her to me and I try to help her. We know that cannot happen in a high school of 1000 students, so our fingers are crossed that the double vision will be correct and she can be a happy, healthy student before she is a freshmen!!
In thinking of our journey I am still ever impressed that she earned all A's this year and took honors classes even with all of the vision problems!!
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