Aaaarg Matey!

So, if you've ever seen Carter in real life you might have noticed he's had a few crossed eyed days. As a newborn I wondered if he could really see because he was always so crossed eyed. But everyone assured me he would grow out of it and he did. Well, mostly. I had asked our doctor about his eyes when he was about 4 months and the doctor said they looked fine. Well, a few weeks ago I had to take Carter in for an ear infection and the doctor noticed Carter's eyes looked crossed. He told me to take him into a pediatric eye doctor. We went last week and it was an interesting experience. The office was small and at 8:45 in the morning there were even a lot of people there. There was a sign saying to plan on being there from 2-4 hours and another sign that said they see 100 patients a day. When we got in the male nurse sounded like a robot because he had said the same thing so many times. They dialated Carter's eyes and then the doctor examined him. The doctor didn't say much but then just all of the sudden told us Carter would have to wear a patch and have surgery sometime this winter. The doctor didn't explain a lot and didn't seem like he had the time to. I asked about the surgery but he said he would tell me about it when it's closer. So Carter has been wearing the patch for a few days now and as a mother I feel awful every time I have to put it on him. He doesn't seem to mind it that much. He wears it for 4 hours a day but with his naps it ends up being more like 7 hours since the time doesn't count when he's asleep. We go back to the pediatric ophthamologist (much easier to spell eye doctor) next month and I assume we'll schedule the surgery then. The doctor said it's common for children to have this surgery 2-3 times up to the age 9. They can't really fix the problem because it's actually a problem with the brain sending the wrong signal but they fix the effect of the problem. From what I've heard I guess they tighten the muscle in the eye. But if we didn't do all this he would go blind in the lazy eye. I guess it's just one of those things that's hard to do as a parent but in the long run it's best for your child. There are many many worse things that could be wrong so I just count our blessings.