I Need My Eyes

The last few days before Jason left were a whirlwind of activity and appointments. I tried to do everything that I wanted to do that required me to have someone watching the kids. It's so hard to take 6 little kids into a doctor's appointment, for example, so I wanted to scratch a bunch of tasks off my to-do list.

Joshua saw the doctor about his worsening asthma. That one was easy.

I went to the dentist for a cleaning. Easy. To the orthdontist for braces. Again, easy. I got Invisalign so I can pop my "braces" on and off at will. It's pretty darn cool- and expensive. And no, we really can't afford it so yes, we'll be paying it off for quite awhile.

Next came what should have been an easy appointment- my annual eye exam. However, it seems as though my life is just not meant to be easy! At my last exam my glaucoma screening came back suspicious. The test measures the intraocular pressure and the optomoestrist also examines your optic nerve. When the pressures are too high it causes vision loss. The largest risk factor for glaucoma is increased intraocular pressure. Wouldn't you know that this time my test came back even higher than last time?

My optometrist referred me to another eye doctor back at the military hospital. THey are going to do further testing and determine how much, if any, of my peripheral vision has been lost. This will give them a baseline so that future tests can be compared. If I am losing vision they can start treatment to stop it. What I find ironic is that the list of things that have been shown to help with glaucoma includes a lot of supplements that I already take regularly. The list includes folic acid, fish oil, Vitamin E, and (gasp!) dark chocolate. I guess, if nothing else, at least I have a good excuse to consume massive quantities of Hershey's Kisses now. Just need to get the dark chocolate kind!

I guess in the grand scheme of things this is relatively minor. It's just another bump in the road. Why me? I have no idea. Why now? I don't know. But The Man with the plan obviously wants to keep me on my toes.

Can you imagine if I start to lose vision and the kids figure out that I can't see them? They'll totally be getting into things right next to me and I won't even notice! It would be hilarious! Ok, not really. Maybe just a little.

Matthew is so proud that he's got his first grown up tooth! Then yesterday Ryan got his first tooth too! It's just starting to peek through. I'm going to miss those gummy smiles. I remember when Matthew used to have that big toothless grin. And now he's turning into such a big kid.

I guess it's about time though. I need someone around here who can brush their own teeth and tie their own shoes! (Especially if I go blind. Just kidding, I'm not going to go blind. Deaf maybe...)