Patching Woes - Again

Joey started Kindergarten in September. He goes from 8:30am to 3:00pm. He goes to bed at 8:30pm. He's supposed to patch 4 hours per day. Hmmm...

I try to patch him by 3:30, which means he needs to patch until 7:30pm. And it has become a whole new challenge, because he is tired at the end of the school day. Not to mention he has homework to do. And then on some days he has karate at 5:30. Most days it ends up being 3 hours patched at the most. I feel like this is constantly hanging over my head because I know he is not getting the patch time that he should be getting. Additionally, he has learned to wiggle his face "just so", so that his patch unsticks from the bottom and he can peek. This means I have to watch him every single minute that he is patched to make sure he's not peeking.

I do think that his brain is starting to use his Coats' eye, which is good. But because he is starting to use it, it bothers him a little. He's aware that it can't see as well. Sometimes I notice that when he's doing his homework, he sits with his elbow on the table and the palm of his hand covering his Coats' eye. His teacher told me she also noticed that he does that at the end of the day. It seems he does it more when he's tired. So its good his brain is using it, but it's a bummer that it bugs him sometimes.

We have our next appt with Dr. T at the end of the month. Dr. T, we have found out, is no longer with Children's Hospital. He is now in a private practice in another city.

One good thing is that since Joey is in school now, he knows all his letters and will be able to read the eye charts a little better (as opposed to the picture charts they have little kids look at). I hope that will give us a better idea of his vision and its progress.

Until next time...