Eye Appointment

Rylee had her eye appointment up at OHSU yesterday. Tony took the day off work so he could go with us, since we planned to stop and trick-or-treat at a few family and friend's houses on the way home. It's a 2 hour drive from us and her appointment was at 10AM. Our plan was to leave our house by 7:20, allowing time for traffic, getting the kids in their costumes once we arrived, and a visit to the bathroom before we had to check in.

We didn't end up leaving our house until 7:30, which still gave us a little breathing room to get there, and thank goodness! Not far into our trip, we got stuck in traffic due to an accident. Then, with about 40 minutes left in our drive, Ayden announced that he had to go potty, so we stopped for a toddler potty break on the side of the road. Since we were already stopped, we figured we might as well make sure Rylee went too. Can I just say how super proud I am of the fact that he actually told us when he had to go? That was the first time that had happened. Not that he's had any accidents in the car yet, but that was the furthest car ride we've taken since he started potty training.

Once we finally arrived at OHSU and got parked, we quickly had the kids go potty in the potty seat we keep in the back of the car and got them into their costumes. We walked into the building at 9:58, and I made a quick dash into the bathroom. There was no way I could make it through her appointment without going potty myself! We got checked in right at 10:00. Phew!

The floor we were on was completely devoted to pediatrics, so there was lots to keep Ayden entertained in the lobby with Daddy, while I went with Rylee. Halloween was the perfect day for us to have this appointment! Everything was decorated and all the staff was dressed up in costumes and they encouraged all the patients to come dressed up as well. Rylee was super excited to see Snow White, who administered all the eye tests!

I was really impressed with how smooth the process was. In addition to Snow White, there was also a Panda Bear (a resident - it's a teaching hospital). They did such a good job making Rylee feel relaxed and excited while looking at pictures for the vision tests, and wearing patches on her eyes. It was almost like a game. They were quick and thorough, but also backed off and took their time when needed, like when Rylee didn't recognize a certain picture on the screen. When we had to wait in the room for the doctor to come back, they put on Mickey Mouse for her to watch.

In addition to being impressed with the staff, I was also very proud of Rylee for knowing her shapes! And let's be honest, I took an internal sigh of relief that we'd been working on shapes so that she could even answer those questions! Go Mommy! lol. She also did great when they put "raindrops" in her eyes. Rylee spent the rest of the day with dilated eyes and it didn't seem to bother her at all. She was such a trooper! Both kids did great actually. The appointment was just shy of two hours, so it was also impressive that Ayden did so well hanging out in the lobby.

The reason we had this appointment was because her primary pediatrician thought she saw Rylee's left eye not quite tracking correctly at her last well check in July and gave us a referral. Turns out that Rylee's eyes are just fine! She has great vision and no eye muscle issues at all. Yayyy! So happy for that report. While the appointment turned out not to be necessary, it's at least nice to now know for sure that Rylee's eyes are perfectly healthy. The doctor yesterday said it's very common for them to get referrals from pediatricians that turn out to be nothing, that there's something about kid's eyes (I can't remember exactly what she said) that can give an appearance of them not tracking together. Primary physicians tend to over-refer, simply because they don't want to miss something if there does turn out to be a need.

On our way home from the appointment, the kids took a short nap on our way to trick-or-treating at my mom's house. We visited there for a little bit and then made two other trick-or-treating stops on our way home, visiting a friend and then their other grandparents. We made it back home for dinner and had a little bit of time to play before bedtime.

It was a very long day, but overall a good day. I'm so glad that Tony took the day off work to go with us. I know that it definitely wouldn't have gone as smooth trying to wrangle both kids through that appointment by myself. It was also nice that we could split the driving time so I didn't have to drive the whole way by myself!

I adore this picture so much!