Eye Exam

I have to preface my eye exam story with some new info. on Jerry. He has been on Zoloft for over a year now for obsessive compulsive type behaviors, sniffing things, repeatedly touching things in certain ways, having to watch the same movies over and over again, repeating phrases, etc... I asked the neurologist the last time we saw her if we could try weaning him from it now and she gave us the go-ahead to cut him down by half a pill for the next three months, one month at a time, until he was off it entirely.

Well, it's been about three weeks now and it's not good so far. He is sniffing and LICKING EVERYTHING! Yes, everything. Last week at Pioneer Clubs, he was sitting up against the wall on the floor with the other kids listening to his teacher tell the Bible story and he turned his head, stuck his tongue out, and went straight for the electrical outlet! If it weren't for his teacher's quick response, reflexes, and elbow, Jerry would have had a whole new hairstyle...to say the least. He started sniffing things about a week after we first reduced the Zoloft, but we've done our best not to call him on it or point it out because we don't want him to do it more out of our recognition of the oddity. It's hard though when you walk into a store and the first thing he does is drop to all fours and smell the floor. Explain that one to the clerk behind the counter!

It's really hard for our other kids not to say anything because they are more embarrassed by Jerry's new behavior than we are. John and I don't get embarrassed by Jeremiah anymore! We are saying something about the licking though because, let's face it, that's just gross! he's even sniffing and licking in speech and OT now too and his OT therapist is going to do some research on the behavior as a sensory issue and see if she can't find some behavioral techniques to try with him to curb the new habits. We really don't want him on seratonin medicine for the rest of his life.

Now, onto the eye doctor. Our kids have never had eye exams before because, up until now, we didn't have vision insurance for them. So all four went today and, wouldn't it just figure, Jerry is the only one who needs glasses?! He is nearsighted and his left eye is worse than his right....about 25/40. We had noticed him squinting funny lately, squeezing his eyes closed, sometimes only his left, and then opening them again, but we thought this was just another new OCD quirk and we ignored it. Yes, parents of the year we are!

Anyway, Dr. Kate Claffie of EyeDocs earned her money today! How much fun it is to give an eye exam to a wiggly, sliding down in the chair, whiny Asperger's kids, who can't recognize his letters yet and answers every question with, "I don't know." Dr. Kate was a saint and took her time. She used pictures for Jerry's exam, but in Jerry's defense, they couldn't have been much more abstract. It took me a few glances to figure some of them out.

These are similar to the pictures, but the phone was a little more mishapen. It looked more like a tower of some strange kind. And let's face it, what kid today knows a phone that looks like this one?! How aniquated! He couldn't identify any of the pictures at first, but then we showed him them aside from the eye exam and told him what each was so he could at least identify them.

Then the exam. Repeatedly, he could not identify the smaller pictures with his left eye and he kept trying to cheat and slide the spoon from over his right eye so he could see the pictures and answer the doctor. He hated not knowing what the pictures were and, with his left eye, at various stages told her he couldn't see any pictures at all. Dr. Kate repeated the procedures with him several times to be sure it was an accurate assessment of what Jerry could really see and not just a meltdown.

In the end, glasses were recommended and ordered....scracth resistant lenses and flexible frames no doubt. We should have them in about a week and a half. Should be interesting to see how this affects his learning if at all.