Charlie's Eyes

The last time Charlie went to the Opthalmologist, he was 5 months old. He had just barely started to show signs that he could see. He would follow my lit up cell phone and open his mouth for the spoon. Occasionally it seemed like he could see our faces. But that was about it. The doctor diagnosed him with albinism, and estimated that he was legally blind. We were hopeful that his vision would improve, but there were no guarantees. We were referred to Early Intervention through the Utah School of Deaf and Blind, and Charlie began receiving vision and developmental therapy 3 times a month. 

The vision specialist that comes is awesome! She teaches me a lot of things that I can do with Charlie to help improve his vision and to help him learn to function with low vision. She brings something new everytime she comes and Charlie absolutely loves the toys she brings for him to play with (So does Caroline!). These are some of the toys she has brought.

Now he is 9 months old, and his vision has improved more than we could have hoped for. The first time he cried when I left the room made me so extremely happy! Because I knew he could see me leave. Funny thing to be excited about, I know. But it was so exciting. Now he looks at me and gets excited when I walk into his room, because he can see me from his crib. We'd worried that he would be delayed in crawling because of his low vision, but he has had no problems whatsoever. From his bedroom, he army crawls all the way down the hall to get the vent on the wall in the living room. It is so rewarding to see him have so much motivation to crawl. His high chair tray is tan. And I put tan colored puffs on his tray. He can see them and he chases down each individual tiny little puff with his pudgy little fingers. It's adorable.

We knew he was doing well. So last week when we took him back to the Opthalmologist, we expected to hear good news. But I didn't expect to hear everything the doctor told us. He told us that Charlie had improved so much that there was no reason for him to be in therapy. He said that in the past 4 months his vision has improved from about 20/200 to about 20/80. No longer legally blind. He told us that Charlie's eyes looked fantastic and that he didn't forsee any serious vision problems in the future. That Charlie would be able to grow up just like his sister (except for the light sensitivity). He did prescribe a second pair of glasses with a lighter tint so that he can wear them inside too. But wow. Words cannot describe the joy, relief and excitement that we felt to hear how well he was doing. Of course we already knew he had improved. But hearing good news from a doctor when you are so used to hearing not-so-good-news. Now that is wonderful. 

We are so grateful fo the improvements that our little Charlie has made. He is so smart and is such a happy little boy. I could never imagine my life without him. And without his beautiful little eyes.