After eight years of patching, Dr. Seidman gave Avery the okay to stop!  This day seemed so far away when she was a baby knowing that statistics often indicated kids who wore a patch, often wore it until around age eight as vision often continued to improve up until this age.

Avery’s vision was relatively similar in both eyes over the year so she alternated patching eyes. When she was a baby she patched for two hours per day, alternating eyes every other day.  Once she entered kindergarten and was in school for eight hours per day, patching for two hours a day became a little trickier.  Wiith Dr. Seidman’s approval, we reduced patching time and on average patched each eye for a total of four to five hours a week.  At some point during her years of patching (pre-k perhaps), we switched from Ortopad one-time use patches to felt patches that went directly on her glasses.

There were times where Avery didn’t want to wear her patch and her negotiation tactics were in full force (i.e. wanting to put it on when she was done with breakfast, after she finished her homework or reading, not when she was riding her bike, not when she was watching T.V, not when she was tired, etc…you get the point!), but overall she obliged and wore it knowing that it was making her eyes stronger.

Avery’s vision has in fact improved over the years.  When Avery was a toddler and up until kindergarten, her vision was in the 20/250 or 20/200 range depending on the doctor visit.  That was actually in the legally blind range.  In the past few years her vision has improved and her most recent visit, her vision measured 20/100.  We’ll never know if the improvement was due to age, her patching, her ability to compensate, or other factors.  Likely it was a combination of many factors, and in the end the result is more important than the why.

Avery knows she sees differently than others.  She accepts it, never questions why her and not someone else, she ironically sees more details than many people with normal vision such as myself.  She choses to see the glass as half full.   Stopping her patch was a day that she has been anticipating for years!!  

She certainly has come a long way!