On Vision and Guilt

I got an email from the Occupational Therapist at Blink's school today. She's concerned about his vision.

Oh, yeah, that.  The ball that I dropped.

Blink was diagnosed in December of 2008 with amblyopia, also known as a lazy eye.  He was prescribed glasses.  He picked out the coolest, edgiest frame in the store, with bright blue frames. He looooved them. I wanted it to be his choice, to give him ownership.  Particularly since in addition to wearing glasses, we were told to patch his weak eye for two hours each day.  I remember thinking at the time, "How the hell am I going to do that!?"  Because patching involves, well, a patch, that is taped to the skin around the eye. Anyone with a tactile-defensive child knows exactly how nervous I was about this "simple" little endeavor...

But as it turns out, we didn't even get to that point.  Step 1 was simply to wear the glasses, which was completely derailed when a classmate of Blink's laughed at his glasses. He hated the attention he got while wearing them.  He adamantly refused to wear them again.  Period.  And, upon the advice of my own eye doctor who told me it wasn't make or break, I let it slide.

Since then, we've taken baby steps. Blink willingly wears them for screen time. Lately I've been handing them to him when he's reading. But none of this translates into wearing them in public.

Today's brought my guilt over this matter right up to the surface again. I know intellectually that one can only take on so many battles at once, but I can't help but feel just a little neglectful for taking such a hands-off approach.  Oh, guilt....