Alyssa's Blog Tuesday, January 10 2017
Jax has had his prosthetic eye for 3 weeks now. People have been pretty interested in talking about our experience thus far. The conversations we have had typically begin on a serious note and, more often than not, they end in laughter as Tyler and I share our stories about our 3 year-old and his fake eye. I will share some of the highlights and answers to the most asked questions we have had up to this point. If you have a question, by all means, ask it. It's not everyday you meet an almost-4-y.o. that can pop his eye out. 1. Jax's eye cost $3400 and insurance only covers the cost of the first one. 3-year-old boys give no shits about this. 2. The ocularist said it would probably take Jax a month to learn how to take his eye out himself... It took him 1 day. 3. Prosthetic eyes are small and they are not easy to find when lost, especially in a child's bedroom. 4. Carseats are not a good place to lose a prosthetic eye. They find their way into cracks and crevices. 5. According to Jax, prosthetic eyes are easily blown out of one's hand by the wind... in the car... in January... when all of the windows are up. 6. Apparently, strong box fans can blow your prosthetic eye out of your eye socket... I have yet to see this happen, but Jax said it happened. 7. Getting a slobbery eyeball spit into your hand is always fun. They have no flavor, but I guess they're fun to suck on. 8. When we ask our son, "Where is your eye!?" it is not a toddler anatomy quiz, we actually want to know where he left it. 9. If you are 3, you have a prosthetic eye, and you aren't getting the attention you want, taking your eye out 7 times in 7 minutes is a good way to get attention. 10. Eye jokes happen in our house. The shock value when people hear these eye jokes is great. 11. Sometimes, Jax comes out of his bedroom and his eyeball is upside down. A swirl motion on the outside of the eye fixes it right up. 12. When your kid has 2 normal looking eyes, nobody at the store stares at you, and their kids don't ask, "what happened to his eye?!"... I like that. 13. The fact that we never have to do eye drops again or worry about Jax needing another surgery is fantastic. Because we had only known Jax with his cloudy eye, losing that part of him was sad and strange for us, but we are getting used to Jax with his new, normal-looking eye. He doesn't understand how much he has been through, or that part of him is different from the other kids he encounters, but he seems proud of his new eye, and he continues to be our happy, hilarious, loving, adventurous one-eyed Jax. He's a stud. |