Eye Drs. & a 2 ½ year old don’t mix!

Morning came and we arise to a major event today. Today was Austin’s checkup at the eye doctor. We spend the morning getting ready, eating our breakfast together at the table and we even managed to squeak in a few sessions of Winnie the Pooh on the computer before it was time to leave.

Austin cooperated very well with me through this whole process, and when it was time to get ready to leave, he obeyed me without any hesitation. In the car we go, and were off and running by 7:00 a.m. Through the traffic we go, waiting on the road due to slow pokes and mommy missing the exit and having to back track, we finally arrived at the clinic at 7:40 a.m. just in time for our appointment.

We get out of the car and I have Austin’s complete cooperation. We go and check in. The lady behind the counter says do you have a co-payment? I said, yes, and handed her my Bennie Card, and off comes $22.00 of the debit card. I love the Bennie Card! Basically it’s $250.00 of “Free” money to help cover medical expenses. Who wouldn’t love that!!

Up the elevator we go, and we sit down in the waiting area. As we wait for the doctor, I think to myself, okay, this is starting off rather well. Austin’s being a good boy so far, but can he hold out for the visit? We wait for about 10min for the nurse to call our name. All of a sudden, I hear “Austin Carr” I wheel the stroller in, past the doors and of course, Austin’s now throwing his normal fit. “AH CRAP, this is going to be a bad visit”.

At this point I am completely embarrassed because he’s throwing this fit. The nurse asked me to sit in the chair and hold him, so she could take a look at his eyes. Yeah right, this is going to work out well. He’s now screaming and unwilling to participate. The nurse doesn’t get any cooperation from Austin, so she can’t get a good checkup on him to see how he’s progressing so we basically get nothing accomplished with her.

The Doc comes in, and she tries to do a procedure on him. She tries to put this prism looking thing in front of his eye. All it does is help magnify the eye, to see if one is dominating his vision over the other. Lone and behold it’s the same old process!! Screaming and unwilling to participate. UGGH CHILD!

After coming to the conclusion that since Austin’s wearing his glasses, were basically doing all we can for him at this point. Until we can get him to cooperate with us more at the clinic, were not going to be able to get much more out of him at this point. The Doc suggested for us to come back in 3 months for a re-check and see if we can have better success next time.

As were leaving the clinic, I made a statement to Austin saying that here we are, we paid this $22.00 for him to see the Dr, and he’s not cooperating. The Dr. heard my comment, and she said, you could stretch it out to 4 months if you want, but nothing too much longer than that.

I think to myself, I just spent $22 on this visit, over 1hr 45 min driving to the eye Dr. for Austin today and now I am completely frustrated because we got no results from this visit and now, we have an appointment to go back again in 4 months just to do it all over again, and for what? The same results? Absolutely nothing?? UGGH you have got to be kidding me!

I head back to work after this visit. I am completely frustrated, discouraged, and upset, but I think I have now figured out a solution to our next visit. Solution for next visit: Bring along another family member, hold Austin down with force, and basically tell the Dr. they need to get a read on his eyes, or coming back to these visits is basically point less. Until Austin can cooperate fully and to the extent that’s needed for them to get the information they need this is just a big waste of my time and money.