Somebody's Watching You

In yesterdays post I mentioned that Maggie snagged a bag of bagels while shopping at Safeway with Steve and his friend Chris the other day. Steve went back and paid for them, of course. When they arrived home, we talked about all the other things we have found in Maggie's chair over the years. There have been hairbrushes, spoons, hair clips by the dozens, toys and anything else that was in reach.The bagels were in plain sight on the tray; but generally she grabs things, can't really hold onto them and they slip down into the side of her lap.

The best many years ago when  we went to buy Eddie some new eye glasses. Thanks to the genes he inherited from me, Eddie has worn glasses since kindergarten. He would need a new pair every year or so and we would go pick them out and order them. When he was in about the third grade we went to try a new place on West Portal. I walked in with Eddie and Tim and had Maggie in her tiny stroller/wheelchair. The kids were probably 8, 6 and 2.  The woman was waiting on someone else and made it clear from the moment we walked in that she did not like kids.

At all.

And especially not boys.

I ignored her. The boys definitely had their moments of being rambunctious, but this particular day was not one of them. They were calm and well behaved. As we waited, Eddie started trying on different pairs of glasses and carefully returning the ones he didn't like. The woman looked up and snapped, "They really shouldn't touch those." I responded, well, we're here to get him new glasses, so he has to try them on. (I pretended not to notice that Tim was also trying them on.)  She went back to her customer and after about a minute looked up and said something else snotty. That was enough. If I'm going to plop down money for a product, I think someone should at least be nice to us. I said, "Clearly you do not want our business, we will go somewhere else." She started to retract, but it was too late. The four of us filed out of the store in a very dignified manner. Haughty might be the best word for it.

As we headed back to the car, the boys and I were laughing at what a grump she was. Even Eddie said, And we were being GOOD! she should see us when we're BAD. I opened the doors and the boys hopped in. Maggie was so little then that she sat in the car seat and we folded her wheelchair in the back. I opened Maggies' door, readied the car seat, undid all her straps, lifted her into the car and strapped her into the car seat. I turned to fold up the wheelchair and saw them.

A lovely set of eyeglass frames sitting on the seat.

I winced. While the grumpy lady was yelling at my perfectly behaved sons, my tiny disabled daughter was stealing her blind.   I picked them up and showed the boys and their eyes bulged in surprise. I though of our dignified and haughty exit and winced again, knowing we had to return these.  Being the chicken that I am, I had one of the boys do it. (I thought it was Tim, but he doesn't remember.) Either Eddie or Tim took the frames, ran the two doors up to the store where the grumpy lady was still waiting on her customer, laid the frames on the counter and said, "My sister took these. Sorry." And then ran back to the car. We laughed our heads off.

We decided to go glasses shopping another day and we all went for ice cream.

Maggie didn't get any ice cream*, but she had the total respect of her brothers, that's for sure.




*no reward for stealing, but she also happens to be deathly allergic to dairy and can't eat by mouth anyway, so not sure it would have been a reward.

Edit - I just realized I wrote this story already about a year ago. Oh well, it's worth a re-tell.
 

Jeepers Creepers, where'd ya get those peepers?

Maggie has an appointment with a new ophthalmologist today. She has not seen an ophthalmologist in many years.  The school district advised me that they need a report or they will cut her vision services. Fair enough. I need the prodding. If something is a static issue for Maggie, such as vision, I will not follow up unless someone pushes me.  Maggie is visually impaired.  It is difficult to assess this impairment because it is so much less dramatic than her other physical issues. It is more subtle, but the impairment is significant.

Can Maggie see? Yes. Absolutely. She may need some assistance in the form of glasses, but her vision, per se, isn’t too bad.  She has cortical visual impairment meaning the problem is with her brain as opposed to her eyes.  It slowly gets better as the child ages. Maggie’s vision has improved, or more likely, she has adapted to the impairment. Maggie is smart and she has figured out ways to compensate for her inability to use her vision. For one thing, she has a phenomenal memory, which helps her maneuver her talker with ease. There are technical tools as well. Her talker has an audio scanning device that allows her to listen to the choices before she makes a selection; but she only depends on that for the stuff she does not already remember.  

Though there is improvement, Maggie’s vision problem does not fall into the “normal” cortical visual impairment scenario.  In many cases, the vision itself is impaired and gets better. In Maggie’s case, her vision is not that bad, but the visual impairment comes from her inability to use the vision she has. Maggie cannot watch television because she cannot handle the movement of what she sees.  Her visual issues are motor based; she has ocular motor issues in addition to all the other motor issues. Those of us with normal vision move our eyes all over to take in a full field of vision.  Maggie cannot do that. When something she is looking at is moving, like television or movies, she simply cannot process what she sees. She turns her head away.

Today we will see a new doctor. The old one retired. I loved that guy, even though I only met him a couple of times. I learned more about Maggie’s neurological issues from him in five minutes than I did from other doctors in two years.  Once I saw him, I understood things so much better. Now we have to see someone else, but I hear great things about him.

It will be interesting to see if he prescribes glasses. Maggie wore them when she was little, but she just ripped them off her face constantly.  As soon as she figured out how to grab them, they were often flying across the room. I can tell you this, for someone who cannot see movement very well, she sure thought that sight was funny. 

Here she is in her hot pink glasses as a little girl.