And the "eyes" have it

We went to get our eyes checked yesterday. All of us. I haven't had my eyes checked in a few years and I figure I'm due for a maintenance screening. John has glasses that he wants new lenses for, so he needed a new prescription.

Annie got her eyes checked, too. It's a strange thing. . . . When we were at her 5 year appointment, her pediatrician "checked" her sight with the chart on the wall. She did fine until she had to cover her right eye. She made several mistakes and they determined that the right eye was 20/30 and her left was 20/20. The doctor wanted us to see a pediatric ophthalmologist so that she could be truly screened for sight deficiencies and/or brain abnormalities. Way to freak me out Doctor.

I called the place and they told me that they were not covered under the vision plan and that if the ophthalmologist determined that this wasn't medically necessary (even with another doctors referral) that we would have to pay $250 for the exam. Of course, he wouldn't know that it wasn't medically necessary until after the examination.

I decided the most prudent course of action would be to take her to an optometrist, which is 100% covered by our vision plan. I was hoping that the optometrist would be able to really tell me if she needed to see a specialist.

She was awful for the exam.

They did the standard glaucoma test and puffed some air in her eyeballs. Both Daddy and I did it before she did, but she cried and cried until the poor nurse said we really didn't have to have it done.

Then she wouldn't sit in the chair. Both Daddy and Mommy were brave and did what the doctor said, we convinced her that there were no needles or blood, no pain at all, that the doctor just wanted to know what letters were on the wall. She still screamed and said that she didn't want to do it. The doctor said that we shouldn't force her, we could always do it another time . . . but I was determined that she was going to have this test. I wanted to know if there was something wrong with my kid . . . and the kid wasn't going to be the one to get in the way of that!!

So then I came up with a plan. I told her that we could get a cinnamon roll if she behaved (we were at the mall, they have a Cinnabon - nuff said). She immediately dried her eyes and bravely took a seat on the big scary chair. She winced a little bit and we reminded her about the cinnamon roll. She did everything the doctor asked.

Results:

John - a little worse prescription
Cost . . . New lenses in his frames and a pair of prescription polarized sunglasses

Stephanie - finding out I have a slight astigmatism in one of my eyes and that I am not as 20/20 as I used to be.
Cost . . . I don't need to wear glasses all the time or even when I'm driving, but I got a pair of "prescription" polarized sunglasses, cuz they were cute and mostly covered by insurance.

Annie - 20/20 in her left eye, 20/25 in her right. When they are together they are 20/20, so the optometrist said not to worry about putting her in glasses yet.
Cost . . . $2.49 for a cinnamon roll.

So worth it.