Well, not really. But as of this morning, Miles is wearing a contact lens in his right eye. He was diagnosed with refractive amblyopia, which is basically "lazy eye" (without the drift). Miles's left eye is pretty "normal" but he's far-sighted in his right eye, and the eye doctor recommended a contact lens to help his vision before it's too late to have a corrective effect.
It's not an uncommon problem in grade schoolers, though my eye doctor says that Miles is his youngest patient. (Low birth-weight and prematurity are risk factors.) Lazy eye is often treated through occluding therapy (a patch), but Miles's vision is poor enough in his bad eye that he probably couldn't function if the good eye was patched. So...he's wearing a 30-day day/night contact lens. I had no problem getting it in -- second try -- though I'm relieved that I only have to do it once a month.
It's hard to assess whether or not it's making a difference. There isn't a subjective test that I can perform, but we have a follow-up with the optometrist in two weeks. I was skeptical that he even had a vision problem because he has an eagle eye, and the ability to spot a fire truck from five miles away! But two sets of tests confirmed that one eye really is quite far-sighted ("hyperopia"), and has been compensating with his good eye.
We're back in Bellingham. Nice to be home!
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