What's New?

A couple days ago Eli got contacts.  Yes, you heard me right, my six year old has contacts!  At first I asked about them because Donald has them (he got his when he was 9) and they are so much easier than glasses. It takes two seconds to put them in and then you don't have to deal with them until it takes 2 seconds to take them out.  Glasses are always getting bent and scratched and dirty.  Sometimes I don't even think that Eli can see out of his glasses.  They always slide down his face and then he looks like an old man tilting his head back so he can see out the bottom of the spectacles on the end of his nose.  I asked our Ophthalmologist what he thought and he said that he felt it would be okay if I was willing to put in the effort.  So I call to see if the Optometrist would give him a prescription at such a young age.  They give me an appointment and I go in, pay the $150 fitting fee and the doctor tells me that he is too young and she won't give them to him.  I was ticked!  Why did you have me come all the way down here and pay money so that you could just tell me "NO"?  Why didn't the other doctor say he was too young? Why didn't the appointment center say he was too young?  She said that no one else knows what they are talking about, but he is too young to handle them.  Then she gave me back my money and I went home frustrated to forget about it.  Three months later Eli and Donald had check ups with the Ophthalmologist.  He asks "Hey, I thought you were going to get Eli into some contacts?"  I explained the frustrating visit and he starts typing away in his computer and tells me that the other doctor had no right to tell you that your son was too young.  There is no set age, as long as the parent is motivated to help.   About a week later I get a phone call from the head of the optic department's office saying that Eli is scheduled to get fitted for contacts.  Apparently, when the doctor was typing away, he was sending an email to someone who was in charge.  He told me that she handles all the young children cases, usually it is only for specific reasons that they give young children contacts, but it shouldn't be a problem if the parent is willing.  
The fitting was set for October 7th.  I had to take Eli out of school and drive over to Riverside again, pay the $150 again and go into a room where a doctor told me that she had never given that young of a child contacts and did not think that it was a good idea.  Are you kidding me!!!  She was actually really nice about it and asked Eli if he was serious about wanting contacts.  He said yes and she turned to me.  I told her that I didn't want to seem pushy, I wasn't even the one who asked for another visit, if she really didn't want him to have them then that was fine, but I was willing to try.  Ultimately she decided that we should try to put them on him.  If he had issues then we would wait a couple years, if he did good then we would come back in two weeks to evaluate if we should buy more.  She leads us to another room where a consultant explains the procedure to me (which is funny since I have had contacts for 10 years and my older son has had them for over a year, we have the procedure down).  So I told Eli to stand up (all the while I was terrified that he was going to freak out and make me look like an idiot who tortures her children), and I put the first one in- no problem, the second one in- no problem.  He did not make a noise, or move at all, he just opened his eyes and there they were.  After a couple blinks he walked around the room looking at all the mirrors and out the windows commenting on how he could see so much.  I was soooo happy!  Then we went back into the doctors office and she said he did amazing and seems to be mature enough to handle them, so we will see her again in two weeks for the follow up.

Woo-hoo!