Patching Woes

Joey patches 4 hours a day, 6 days a week. We give him Sunday off.

The first year of patching included many tantrums, wrestling matches, "patch-pinches (Joey trying to pull it off), soggy patches from many tears, and keeping conversations going in the car so he wouldn't fall asleep with his patch on. Worst of all, though, was his intense anger at me because I was the one doing this to him.

The second year, well, he still hates it. But nowadays, even though he dreads it and still kinda whines about it, he knows he HAS to do it - that he doesn't have a choice. He'll whine for maybe 15 seconds, and then goes and plays. I attribute this change to the fact that when I just couldn't take it anymore, I asked people to pray for us. "Coincidentally", at that point, he really seemed to fall into a routine with it.

When we first started patching, he'd just wanted to curl up and go to sleep when he had it on. I had to get wise and keep him occupied. His favorite thing to do is a card game with pairs of pictures with which we play "memory". We also got him a "Leapster", a little electronic learning game. That keeps his little eye busy and his little mind awake. Other things we do are look through books and discuss the pictures, Play-Do, flash cards, and when all else fails, we go outside and play.

Another thing I wasn't sure about at first was whether or not I should take him places when he was wearing his patch. I wondered if going to the grocery store or mall embarrased him. I finally decided that at his age, it really didn't. In fact, running errands made patch time fly by quicker and stimulated his eye to look at all kinds of different things. Sometimes people just stare, sometimes people ask questions. Sometimes I launch off into a full explanation of Coats' Disease. Sometimes I just say he needs to strengthen his weak eye. I figured he would take his cues off of me - if I acted offended, he'd think something was wrong with wearing the patch. But if I answered matter of factly, he'd just assume it was a fact of life.

Patching is tough, no doubt about it. Frustration builds up. Every now and then I just have to go into a corner to cry. And when I'm done, I clean my face and thank God because I know things could be worse. I'm just patching him. I can do that.