Intermittent Exotropia

Since Lennox was about a year old we noticed her right eye would occasionally drift out. As she got older it seemed to happen more often. Around her first birthday I took her to an eye doctor who said she had astigmatism and needed glasses. I was skeptical of this as she never seemed to have problems with seeings things far away or close by. She never walked into walls or had problems with fine motor skills. I decided to get a second opinion and I am so glad I did.

The first doctor didn't even mention her lazy eye as this doctor noticed it right away and did multiple tests. He said internally, as he could see, there were no problems and her actual eye sight was fine. But she did have a lazy eye and put us on a waiting list to see a specialist in Winnipeg. About three months passes and I still hadn't heard anything so I gave them a call and it turns out the wait list in Winnipeg was up to 18 months long! With nothing to do we went along with our lives. Fast forward 10 months later and both Mitch and I noticed her eye was worsening.

We decided to take her back to the eye doctor where he agreed it was progressively getting worse. He couldn't believe that we still hadn't heard from the specialists office and decided to refer us to one in Regina. Not even a week later we had an appointment to see the specialist in a month.

Two weeks ago we made the trip to Regina to see the specialist. We decided to make a little holiday out of it and stayed in the coolest hotel, The Atlas. I highly recommend this hotel for anyone with kids. It had a waterpark with a splash pad, also the pool was so warm even Leighton loved it!

Once we got to her appointment the assistant took Lennox right in and did some "games" with her so she could watch her eyes. She passed the seein

g part with flying colours (no glasses needed) but she did notice that Lennox would turn her head to use her left eye instead of just using her right. I am so proud of how well Lennox did that day, even with the eye drops, she was a champ!

After the eye drops took affect, the doctor came to look at her eyes. Twenty minutes later he told us she has a condition called intermittent exotropia, when the eye turns outward some of the time due to muscle weakness. To start we n

eed to patch her good eye once a day for two hours and do exercises to strengthen the muscles. Since we live in Manitoba he said to stay on the wait list for Winnipeg and get them to reexamine it after some time eye patching.

In the future if it does not get stronger we may have to look at surgery to tighten the muscle. As of right now I am just relieved she doesn't need surgery any time soon. And if it comes to surgery one day, he said it is more cosmetic than anything. So far she is doing well with the patching, except she is always scared it will hurt to take it off so I normally just let her wear it until she is ready to take it off on her own. The exercises are difficult to do with her as she gets so frustrated that she can't just turn her head to focus. I recently called the Winnipeg specialist to make sure she was still on the wait list, in which they informed me it is now a 23 month wait. I am so glad we went to Regina before it got any worse.

In all, I am so proud of Lennox and how well she did that day. She is only three and doesn't fully understand why she has to wear the eye patch, no matter how you explain it to her, I think its just frustrating to her as she can not physically see her eye drift. I have tried showing her in the mirror and explaining and she says she understands, but I know she is just as confused as before.

Last thing I want to touch on is to not really the kids but to the adults who stop me and ask me "what's wrong with her eye?". Not only do they think they have a right to that information but they also blurt it out right in front of Lennox like she can't hear them. I understand when kids do it, kids have no filter. But as an adult I expect you to be a little more mindful of my young daughters feelings. She is perfect in every way, she just so happens to need to strengthen her one eye. So please be more considerate and think before you speak.

Tasha ❤