We are so happy, I just had to report it, here! Katrina had a routine eye doctor visit/exam yesterday & we got our first good news in a long time…

For those who don’t know, she was diagnosed with Amblyopia, one of the conditions more commonly referred to as “lazy eye”, when she was only 4 & 1/2 years old. In her case, we have come to understand that it has something to do with the connection between her eye & her brain (optic nerves, I think) not focusing quite accurately enough in her left eye. Her right eye has always been fine/strong & in fact, would tend to overcompensate for the “lazy” one… We have gone through periods of patch therapy, since then, upon her eye doctor’s advice. She wears an eye patch over the “good” eye for part of the day, so that it forces the other one to focus better.

We have been “patching” her on & off, for periods of about 3-6 months at a time. In the duration of the last 2 & 1/2 years, her vision progressed from being around 20/70 all the way up to 20/40 or so, which is the range it should be, in order for someone to legally be able to drive (if they are of age, of course), so at that time, her eye doctor told us we could take a break from using the patch & he would see us again in 6 months. However, at her last appointment (a couple months ago), she did not show any progress at all, so he recommended that we have her use the patch again.

It might seem frustrating/annoying, but the nice thing is that since she only had to wear the patch for 3-5 hour periods each day, we let her do it in the evening, on weekdays, so that it wouldn’t bother her (and she wouldn’t get questioned, or worse, possibly teased, by other kids at school) & we could also monitor her & make sure that she wasn’t “peeking” over or around it, etc. On weekends, she got into the habit of putting it on after breakfast, or after church, so that she could get it over & done with & out of the way for the day. She is such a mild-mannered, responsible kid, as well. We rarely to never had to remind her about it, once she got into the habit & she’s never complained of it bothering her, either.

Well, at yesterday’s eye exam, she out-performed all her previous ones! Her vision now looks to be at about 20/25, which is a really good result! Her eye doctor was so enthusiastic & proud of her success! He told us that, “there’s a light at the end of the tunnel” & that even though 20/20 would be the ultimate goal, it’s okay if she doesn’t get there & her vision stays where it is. She has shown such great progress, in the past couple of months alone, using the patches that he told us we could give her a break from it, if we wanted. He said it was really up to us & that it mainly depended on whether or not it was a nuisance to her. Since she’s never had any problems with it & we’re going back to see him in September, we decided to keep it up, for now. Who knows? Perhaps she’ll progress even more by then… And, if not, we can always take a break after that appointment…

I just wanted to thank all of you who have kept her in your thoughts & prayers over the years & to share that we know her breakthrough is a gift from God. It’s amazing what faith can do & we are so grateful to our Lord for all His good works! We plan on keeping a positive outlook & are continuing in our hopes & prayers that that light at the end of the tunnel is reached, sooner than later!