Cole's Vision Appointment - To See or Not to See

To bring a little non-medical humor back to my blog, I wanted to say that Cole met the Easter Bunny this weekend.  You gotta love this kid!  He wanted NOTHING to do with the big furry white guy.  Disney this Fall should be entertaining!!

I also wanted share a quick update since Cole had his vision appointment today with the Loudoun County Vision Specialists.  The appointment went well and I learned a lot more about Cortical Visual Impairment - one of Cole's numerous diagnoses.  As I've mentioned before, his eyes are able to collect information, but his brain has trouble processing it.  So it's common for Cole to see a mirror and call it a rectangle or see a clock and call it a circle.  That is because his brain is processing one element at a time.  The hope is that over time he will train his brain how to continue to collect information to process what it means.  Although the specialists agree that he has significant visual issues, they are not able to give any information about what they will recommend for his services until the final report is completed.  They also said that given his diagnoses and history, he is doing really well.  I suppose it's all about perspective...

There have been many times in our journey that I am shocked by comments that people make.  Today was no different.  The specialist said, "I think it's very possible he will be able to read."  Ummm....ok.  Funny how I made a broad generalization that because he knows the difference between a pentagon and an octagon and because he can knows many of his alphabet letters that he will one day be able to read.  Apparently that's not the always a good assumption.  As with many of these ah-hah moments, I called my father to get a more in-depth explanation to understand the implications for Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI).  He agrees that Cole is doing so well that he will most likely be able to read.  So although I feel better knowing he will likely be able to read, it has added another item on my never ending list of things that I worry about.  On a positive note, Cole doesn't walk into things nearly as much as he used to and he is getting much more accurate with his colors!  Go Cole!