No One Would Ever Have Guessed

We would go out to a restaurant, park, store, etc. with my daughter several months ago and she could navigate an unfamiliar environment easily.  She  was able to participate in things well enough that people didn’t realize she had a vision deficit.   If it came up at all, we would commonly hear, “no one would ever have guessed” because it wasn’t readily apparent at that point.

Things have changed since then and it is now apparent fairly quickly to strangers that something is amiss.   Part of it is a good thing because my daughter has figured out she needs to ask for help.   She will come up to you and ask, “are you mommy?”  Before, she would wander around, making these stressful faces and then make these little peeping sounds when she got near a person in the hopes we’d speak and call out to her.   She will tell you now if she can’t see something or if she needs help, which is a great thing, because we want to help her, but we don’t know when she has a need.

She, sadly to me, also looks like a blind child a lot of the time.   Her eyes don’t track like a sighted person’s does a good part of the time.   She looks at things and tracks things with her eyes, but it’s more of a distant thing and if she’s in conversation with you, she doesn’t even bother to look at you, she sort of disengages her eyes and listens.

With the slow loss of vision that’s continuing to happen, she needs help navigating now too.    We make sure she knows if there’s a curb or steps, just in case she misses them.    In lines or in busy places we have to say things like, “I’m over here, follow my voice” and “walk to the left, you’ll be able to feel the chair in a few more steps.”

Aside from the additional directions and the asking for help, she seems to be fine with her current reality and is coping well.   She does have some stress, but she’s working through it well and adapting.

The Big Boy Update:  On Friday night the fireplace was turned on by someone.   It wasn’t cold enough outside to merit a fire, but it was nice and cozy feeling so we kept it on for a while.   My son remarked, “that fire is so hot I can’t even believe marshmallows are real.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter got glasses today.   They are clear lenses so no correction, but the glasses will help protect her when she’s playing outside or in an unfamiliar area that could be hazardous (like walking in the woods with lots of small branches she can’t see.)   They are light pink, rubber and have a strap to keep them on.    The vision center we got them was so friendly.   They were able to get the lenses made in a day instead of a week.   My daughter likes her glasses quite a lot, although wearing them for long periods is not yet something she’s decided she likes.

Fitness Update:  That’s right, you read correctly, I did some exercising today.   We tried to run but it was raining so we went to the fitness room and did about ninety minutes of different things.   I worked on sprints on the treadmill and did a lot of upper body.   So glad I didn’t forget how to exercise.