Pirate, ho!

Little Mister loves pirates. He dressed as one for his second Halloween, loves the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, and was thrilled when he had a pirate ship play set under the Christmas tree this year. One of his favorite preschool days was our pirate day where we talked like pirates, dressed like pirates, and used booty for mathematics manipulatives. Little Mister named a dear friend of our family who is battling cancer "Pirate Ed" because of the bandanna he sometimes wears. The two of them play pirates whenever they see each other, and Little Mister talks about his pirate buddy all the time. For his birthday (in a couple weeks), Little Mister requested that I make a pirate patch so that he could be a real pirate like Ed.

I now have one less craft project to complete. Little Mister is the proud owner of his very own, real eye patch.

As my son sits here snacking on a "bunny carrot," I'm busy processing the events of this morning. I had mentioned briefly in on of my Day Book entries that my son had had a few episodes where he felt like the room was spinning around him. At our visit to our pediatrician, we found no obvious cause of the dizziness. Before we did further (scary) testing, Dr. Sean referred us to the optometrist for an eye exam. Since the pediatrician appointment, we've had a couple more episodes that were more along the lines of headaches than dizzy spells, so I was more than happy to take him to the eye doctor this morning.

As it turns out, Dr. Sean was right on the money sending us to the eye doctor. Little Mister is in the early stages of developing a lazy eye. While his vision in one eye is perfectly normal for his age (when the vision is still maturing), his other eye has been lagging behind, and his brain was starting to give up on it and rely solely on his stronger eye. The bottom line: this could most definitely have been causing the dizziness and headaches.

We'll see what our follow up visit with the pediatrician brings, but my mommy mind is more at ease now. Yes, my son will most likely wear glasses forever, but I can't think of a kid that could pull them off better than him! Yes, he will be wearing a patch for 4-6 hours a day until further notice, but I don't know a kid that would be happier to play pirates that often! Yes, we'll have the super fun expense of vision care with a great out-of-network doctor, but we do have vision insurance that will reimburse a portion of the cost. Yes, Little Mister has a lazy eye, but he does not have a brain tumor, migraines, or vertigo. Today is a day full of blessings.