March Visit to Dr. T

Joey had his routine eye check-up with Dr. T yesterday. Everything looks good! At his last appointment, his left eye was at 150/20. Yesterday, it was 125/20! That's a slight improvement! Everything inside his eye looks stable, and his cataract has not worsened. All good news!

During the exam, I had the pleasure of hearing my 7 year old son have a conversation with his doctor about Vincent Van Gogh! There was a small calendar on the desk with a picture, so Joey pointed to it and said "That's a famous artist."

Dr. T said, "Yes, it is! Do you recognize him?"

Joey said, "He cut off his ear!".

Dr. T said, "That's right! It's Vincent Van Gogh! Have you learned about him?"

Joey said "Yeah, we learned about him in school.".

Dr. T said, "He was also a poet. Did you know that? But he only became famous after his death. That happens a lot. A lot of artists only get famous after their death. ."

I enjoyed this little exchange, and Dr. T seemed to enjoy it, too! They also discussed motorcycle riding (Joey's favorite rider is Travis Pastrana, Dr. T's favorite rider is Ricky Carmichael). Joey also wanted to let Dr. T know that he had gotten an A+ in Language at school. (Later, he proudly told Daddy that Dr. T said he "loves it when his patients get A's"!) He even asked Dr. T how long he had been an eye doctor (10 years)! He is one of the best (if not the best) pediatric retinologists - I am so glad God led us to him!

Later that evening, Joey had Karate class. I gave him the option of skipping it cuz his eyes were still dilated, and the lights at the dojo are bright. But he wanted to go. (They've ordered his sparring gear and he wanted to see if it had come in. They ordered a week ago, and told us it would take 6-10 business days to arrive. It's been 7 days, and Joey - not knowing the concept of "business days" - thought it would be there!) During his class, I overheard him telling his Sensei that his eyes were dilated. Sensei kinda laughed and said, "Do you know what dilated means? It's when the black thing in your eye gets bigger or smaller to let light in or not". And I thought...Not only does he know what dilated means, but he knows that the black thing is called a pupil! From where I was sitting, I couldn't hear the whole thing, so I couldn't tell if Joey was telling him that the lights were too bright, or if he was just chatting about his day . But he didn't seem to be having a hard time, so I didn't interfere.

So Joey has had a great week! He got his midterm report and his grades have all improved; he's happily waiting to start sparring at Karate; and his eye exam went very well! And today his school is having its "Grandparents Day" (his class will be singing "Take Me Home, Country Road")!

Next eye exam is scheduled for July.
Until then...