Frustration into Fruition & over it...

Once upon a day...

I woke up and ran to Safeway for some coffee because we were out. Out of freaking coffee! Day two of tea was not really gonna be an option, after all I am a United State-ian. My favorite roast from peerless is French roast, so at this point I just need some Effin caffeine!

I digress.

So today was the BIG day. The day where we visit the brand-spanking new Ophthalmologist for EmBea's 4th follow up for her anisometropic amblyopia. Today was apparently a time to delve into the chaos of an over booked Eye Doctor's office.

We signed in, paid our co-pay, checked in with the Optometric technician, had Em's glasses assessed for the script and were assigned to room 3. Our lovely Ophthalmologist was very thorough. She determined that Em's old Rx was obsolete and also that she had developed astigmatism. Many eye drops were administered to dilate EmBea's eyes. She cried, she screamed and I held her eyelids open, Ala clockwork orange. This truly and completely sucked and felt cruel beyond all reason...

Cut to being told that our insurance did not cover refraction. (refraction=the final step of looking at the eyes after dilation -aka all of those effin drops) and that we could skip out or pay an additional $65. I am not a tortuous mommy, I paid up. Then the "primary" O.D. comes in. She then says OH..oh we need to refer you to a Pediatric Ophthalmologist. WTH, seriously what the fricken heck..That is where I thought we were.

Lesson learned. When entering a new state of residence with an amblyopic child ask, ASK..are you a Pediatric Ophthalmologist. Do NOT ask; do you treat children with Amblyopia? If they can, they will say yes and you will find yourself being charged above and beyond your budgeted co-pay.

So am I down, am I upset, am I pissed the eff off? NO. I was a earlier today when I barraged my DH with frantic texts. Now, I am not. It was the honest mistake of a Mama of an Amblyopic child who had thus far had an "easy go". I will never again take for granted the lack of bedside manner of our Doc in Albuquerque.

My advice to any Mama planning a move; double and triple check with your insurance as to what may or may not be covered. Double and triple check with the office that you choose that they cover your child. Pediatric seemed to be the key word in my experience.

Other than that...

I have moved forward. I have a plan, a new Rx for my wee turtle and a fricken positive attitude. We will see the new Pediatric OD soon and EmBea will be wearing her fab new script. We'll rock, Rap and roll with the flow. Until then we are Patching Strong, 4 hours per day and looking to improve even more. Our progress from March 2009 to now..20/200 to 20/60. I have faith and belief that we will succeed and my daughter will beat Amblyopia.

Thanks for allowing me to vent dear internet.

Peace, Love, green Chile and a Taco truck in Oakland.

-out

Bea's Adventures in Amblyopia

Another guest post at Amblyopia Kids dot com...

Girls and Boy...

The children were very challenging today, especially Bre. He is not handling the 6 year old dynamic girl duo. Every 5 minutes it is Mawwwwm. I can hear this call from inside the house. I psychically sense the outburst before it occurs. He wants to play their games but is rather obnoxiously annoying; as any almost 4 year old boy would be to two 6 year old girls. His sister is too much for him to handle most of the time, throw another in the mix and it is literally Fit City. Not that the girls don't provide a little drama of their own. Their drama is appeasable. A quick talk, a little humor, throw in some gummy bears or a popsicle and you are good to go.

I can't say it is all bad it just really forces me to look at how I handle the situation at hand. I have to be the rational and calm adult. Sometimes I just want to throw a fit too, dammit! There I'm done with that. I am learning that there are just points when you let things go.

On a high note, Bea started gymnastics today. It is so perfect for her. Just enough structure for her to stay focused. When she did spring soccer it just wasn't engaging enough. During practice she would notice a random leaf floating through the air and gaze at it in wonder. Soccer ball be damned she was lost in that leaf and the daydream it represented. Gymnastics is engaging and fun.

I was worried that her amblyopia (see previous post here.) would be a hindrance but the tumbling is so intuitive that it didn't seem to be a factor at all. Her patching is going really well and we have a second followup in July. I am crossing my fingers for some positive results.

Well it is getting late and I fear that soon I will be all mumbo and no jumbo. So peace, love and green chile to all. -out

Like Woah!

This afternoon/evening has been bat shit crazy fucked up insane like whoa! No commas necessary. So the school nurse says BG needs an eye exam because her left eye is not seeing too clearly. Unfortunately the school nurses diagnosis turned out to be a No SHIT Sherlock sorta moment!! We took her in to the eye doctor for her first "real" check up ever. It is never good when they stick her on the "automatic look at the red house" machine and the assistant gets a look on her face like your child is a martian. Then you go in for the exam...

I told BG that no matter what she had to tell the truth. When she said she couldn't see the 6 inch letters on the wall behind me my first thought was Bullshit, little drama queen. My second thought was why the fuck is the optometrist so fucking fidgety? He says that he just cant get a handle on it so he adds some drops and dilates my 5 years old's eyes.

Amblyopia. Blindness in one eye due to the brain not computing the information so it develops one eye over the other. That is my off the cuff what I think the optometrist said to me definition. We see a specialist Friday. I have been on the support groups sites, I am feeling guilty and scared shitless, hence the sailor verbiage.

To top that off we had an artist meeting at the studio tonight. Needless to say it was not the perfect end to the evening. Maybe I just wasn't feelin' it. Maybe somebody just pissed in my cheerios and every Dumb Ass remark anyone made just rubbed me the wrong way. I mean i willingly listened to Lincoln Park on the way home, and I cannot stand angsty angry tunes. I give Props to the PM-L but other than that, like Woah!