November 30, 2010- Seeing the World Through One Eye...

    

     Just in case you were wondering, we are still in the process of figuring out what is wrong with my youngest son’s eyes. The doctors here did refer us to specialists in Hawaii, but they did not feel his loss of sight in one eye was an essential or emergency matter, so we have to write an exception to policy to request to have a paid medical leave for him to get further tests on his eyes.  Apparently during talks with the chosen specialist in Hawaii, my son’s father found out that the doctor really cannot be sure if it is a congenital cataract based on the information provided by the doctors here, and he will require a full battery of tests which will take about a week to complete.  He does suggest that it would be good to do this soon, but if it really is a congenital cataract, and he has had it since he was born, he may possibly never have sight in his left eye.  So, today, we are faced with seeing the world through my son’s future, which may be only one functioning eye. 

     Although this is a very disheartening situation which causes great distress to me as a parent, wondering if I could have done more to catch this “birth defeat” earlier and being flabbergasted that I never noticed a problem before his seventh year of life, I feel very encouraged by how well he has done despite this handicap of sorts. He is learning to read and is at the most normal level he could be at for a first grader in all his skills and even his maturity level, and he really does not seem that affected by his impaired sight. Maybe not having sight since birth is a blessing in disguise rather than developing a cataract later in life and lamenting what he has lost, he just rolls with it as all kids tend to do with difficult situations.  They are definitely more adaptable than adults.  Somehow, we seem to lose our ability to change and grow as we get older, getting stuck in our ways, and complaining that change is too hard. If we could all just remember sometimes to try and see the world through the eyes of those less blessed than we are, maybe we would appreciate more what we do have. 

     I don’t yet know what challenges my son may face by not having any depth perception if they indeed discover that he will never have sight in that eye, but I know that he will move through those challenges with grace and determination as he doesn’t let anything stop him from being who he wants to be, even at seven.  I am proud of him for these traits as they are ones I have had to work on and develop, not ones I was simply born with as he was.  It’s good for me to put myself in his shoes once in a while and see the world through his eyes so I can better understand him, learn from him, and grow as a person because of my interactions and relationship with my baby boy.  That’s what so great about being a teacher. I believe we are more tuned in to looking for those learning opportunities and figuring out how to best teach even the most challenging students, so we tend to learn as much from them, and many times more, as they do from us, and my kids humble me and teach me something new every day.