A real pirate

For the past month I have been doing "preschool" with Liam. I noticed when he colors, looks at shapes or the alphabet he will rub or close his left eye. I would ask him why he was doing it. First he didn't realize he was and then as I would mention it to him he would say because it was hurting. I made an eye appointment and prepared him for this and that but not for the drops they had to put in his eyes. Chloe went with us and was trying to help her big brother out. He was having to cover one eye and tell them what picture he saw. When it came to his right eye covered and left eye uncovered he couldn't tell you what they were! Chloe picked up on that and started telling him what it was!! hahaha the doctor got a little tickled. I was having to hold out from two emotions. Laughing and crying. I know it is not the end of the world that he has a problem with his sight, but it wasn't something I thought he would have a problem with. Thankfully we have caught it in time to work with a few therapies. He has what is called intermittent exotropia. It is the opposite of cross eyed. His left eye gets tired and his brain will just let it go off to the side. So he will use a "pirate" patch 2 hours a day , 3 days a week. They encouraged me to do school still and let him play his gameboy for the time left after school. Last week we did this and he did ok. A few times I had to correct how he was positioning his head. He would turn it instead of looking straight on. Today he did well but his eye got so tired and was really bothering him so we only did and hour and 30 mins. I know he will get use to it and it might take the rest of this week for him to really understand how it will help. One other thing we do is having him watch a pen or pencil tip. I did this and showed Joe how Liam's eye would go over to the left instead of in. It is a strange thing to see. We will do this until July 6th then go and reevaluate everything. Back to the drops...his eyes had to be dilated. Joe nor I had ever gone through this so I really didn't know what to expect. He hates things in or close to his eyes. Very sensitive to light and water getting close to them. They said this is normal for his issue. Anyway after holding him with my arms wrapped closely around him they got the drops in....he was SCREAMING! I promised him a toy from Dollar General and he calmed down pretty fast. All and All it was a good visit and now I know just how he is seeing things. When they told me the patch was one way of trying to correct it, I knew what to tell Liam so he would be on board with this idea. I told him he could be a pirate just like he has always wanted. This worked and they let him pick the color. So him having some control of the situation made it a little easier on him. Lastly this is a decorative piece that KK gave me and we have dubbed this the treasure chest. So the patch has a home where it will not be lost somewhere in this house.