after receiving word from the mayo clinic at 9 a.m. sharp that we should get there as quickly as possible odin spent a long day in tests after tests after tests. during the eye chart tests it was amusing and devastating to hear him matter-of-factly state over and over again when asked to identify a letter with only his right eye that he couldn’t because "it was too dark".

"i already toooooooooold yoooouuuuuu, it’s too dark in here."

and after the hours and hours of tests including a sonogram, pictured here, where he bravely sat through having sonogram gel smeared on his eye and a sonogram sensor pressed against his eye we found ourselves finally sitting with the mayo opthamologist, attempting to be prepared for the worst.

"well, he has bleeding in the eye, a vitreous hemorrhage, with no apparent retinal detachment."

he then spins around on his stool, calls someone, mutters something and spins back around.

"i checked with a pediatric colleague and he said we have 3-4 weeks until the brain starts shutting down on his right eye. so, i’d like to schedule you for a follow-up in two weeks. if there’s no blood in his eye we don’t need to schedule a surgery."

"you’re pretty sure he told you right away when he first noticed vision problems?"

"yes. i guess."

and then, i kid you not, he gets up to leave.

"uh, we have some questions – like is his eye still bleeding."

"we don’t know."

and then, i kid you not, he says he doesn’t have much time for more questions; perhaps maybe we could talk more when we come back in two weeks.

i did manage to get a few more hurried questions in, most notably, that odin can – for the most part – act like a normal kid over the next few weeks and we don’t have to be overly concerned about the everyday knocks that a four year takes increasing the odds of his retina detaching.

so, for the most part, very positive news for us.

on the other hand, the renowned mayo clinic gets an F in customer service.