We went to West Suffolk Hospital yesterday for Joshua’s routine checks. After a sight test using pictures getting smaller and Josh wearing 2 different types of glassing each covering the opposite eye the ophthalmologist discovered he see’s better with his left eye and thinks it is a good idea to start patching it. We then saw his eye consultant who dilated his pupils with drops and looked into the back of the eye. He discovered Josh had astigmatism in the right eye which explains the poorer vision. He said he thinks patching works well in children that do not have nystagmus but ones that do it can be very hard, which I can understand. Joshua’s nystagmus would become more rapid in the right eye whilst the left is patched and would find getting around twice as hard. The consultant is going to wait 3 months to check the vision again encase the testing was wrong as Josh wasn’t very co operative in the sight test, and go from there with either glasses or patching. I’m slightly worried as the ophthalmologist was a bit concerned the longer we wait the higher the chances the vision deteriorates in the right eye. She did however say that if he needs glasses for something like astigmatism its best to go with them before patching. (Sorry bit confusing). Hopefully in 3 months nothing changes. I trust they have made the right decision.
Over the last few days Joshua hasn’t been well at all. I thought I would write about some of my observations about how being ill affects Joshua’s Nystagmus.
He’s had a really bad cough and cold in which I have noticed he’s Nystagmus is far more obvious with he’s eyes moving side to side at a more noticeable rapid rate. This is probably the worst I have seen he’s eyes move in a while. Joshua is normally such a fun happy child, and although I know he has a cold and cough (this in itself will make him grumpy and not himself) but with his increased eye movement it is really affecting him. He has been falling over a lot more and getting extremely frustrated with himself, us and things in general. His balance has noticeably changed falling over, bumping into things (more than usual) which only adds to his frustration, although he does pick himself up and gets on with it. I’m sure he his getting used to all this and learning to cope the best he can.
Josh is also going through the potty training stage. Up until this week has been doing very well slowly but surely moving towards the ultimate goal of ditching those nappies, however this week has been a total setback.
I’ve been checking on Joshua during the night, more so than usual, to make sure he is ok. Each time I checked I kept finding him on the floor, asleep, it seems to disorientate him sum what more. So if you have a child that’s with Nystagmus, depending on what stage they are, i.e. recently moved from cot to cot-bed its worth checking them more often. It is possible that this is unique to josh but none the less something to watch out for as know body likes sleeping on a hard floor.
I hope he gets better soon.
Note: (Joshua is currently 2 years and 4 months old)