today it was time for another eye exam – this one provided by the same local organization that performs some but not all of his developmental assessments and also sponsors his preemie play group.

i must admit that we were a little disappointed with the home exam because it didn’t answer the question we were hoping to answer – whether or not he is legally blind.

but the nice examiner did measure quite a few other parameters and verified that in all other aspects his eyesight and general health is astonishing. she was particularly amazed and to hear that he had over 1500 “burns” in each eye and yet didn’t seem to be suffering any adverse affects ( loss of depth perception or peripheral vision ) from the scar tissue that is necessarily created from the eye surgery itself. and she commented that his “near field” vision was almost certainly perfect ( e.g. he was able to repeatedly pick up incredibly small individual “sprinkles” from a small pile in her hand.

and it’s perhaps promising that although she agreed that the doctor who performed the exam is very good at what he does, she also thought it was unusual to have such a dramatic shift in vision over his last two exams ( from -1 to -5 ). i guess we’ll just have wait patiently for the next 4 months until his next “official” exam to get some clarity.

we spent some time outdoors intentionally walking around on uneven and cracked surfaces because she wanted to see how he reacted to relatively unfamiliar terrain; she did point out that he doesn’t do as well walking up or down inclines and steps up high when he approaches a large groove or crack in his path which might mean that he has a difficult time discerning depth changes due to vision loss.

or it might also mean that he’s a relatively new walker and not really used to walking on rocky, cracky, uneven terrain.

hi. ho. ironically ( or not, i guess ) lately he’s been enjoying putting on a pair of mamma’s old glasses.