percival

You may remember me blogging some time ago about our daughter's visit to her German paediatrician, where a potential eye problem was flagged up. I got a referral from the GP in mid-August after having had to wait two weeks for an appointment (hooray!) - I think my health visitor intervened to secure it for me.

The way they operate here in Edinburgh is that you get a pre-screening at an optician's first, then a follow-up at the Eye Pavilion. We had our pre-screening today, six weeks after the referral had gone out (hooray!). It all went very well. Our daughter was seen by an orthoptist first, then she got her drops, then, 30 minutes later, the optician checked her eyes. These clinics are held at branches of Browns Opticians in Edinburgh.

I was very impressed with both the optician and the orthoptist - both really friendly, really good with kids, very reassuring, very good "bedside manners". DD really enjoyed the orthoptist's vision tests, and barely uttered a whimper when the drops were put into her eyes. I had been fearing for the worst, remembering

rivka's experience with her little girl, but ... no. We were lucky this time. I don't know what did it; it was close to her nap time, as well.

To cut a long story short, she's absolutely fine. She'll need to have a follow-up to assess vision in each eye seperately, which is difficult to do when they are so small, but apart from that, nothing out of the ordinary. She will probably be sort of monitored, though, because my depth perception problems could, as

rivka pointed out, be hereditary, so they will watch her to see how things develop.

I am so relieved, and, as I already said, impressed by the kindness and the professionalism of the people who looked at her.