Vision 2020

Yesterday afternoon Uwais finally got his initial eyetest with an optometrist at the Australian College of Optometry (ACO). 4 weeks of anxiousness were built into yesterdays' appointment. Only God knows!

23 Februari lepas, Uwais dijadualkan utk menjalani checkup 3 1/2 tahunnya dgn Maternal Child Health's nurse, sepertimana Aliyah sebelum ini. Tapi checkup nya lebih simple drpd Aliyah dulu dan yg paling ditekankan adalah ujian penglihatan. 

Nurse starting off the screening test - so kena pakai sepek mata pirate yer ;-)

Testnya sgt mudah dan ringkas. Tutup sebelah mata dgn cermin mata yg disediakan oleh nurse. Tengok kad dipaparkan oleh nurse yg berdiri dlm 2 - 3 meter drpd meja Uwais duduk dan Uwais hanya perlu tunjuk objek atau huruf yg serupa di atas kad yg diletakkan di atas meja di hadapannya. Pada permulaannya, apabila semua objek besar dia dapat tunjukkan semua objek & huruf berkenaan dgn laju dan tepat. Tetapi apabila objek/huruf tersebut semakin kecil, sebesar ibu jari dr kejauhan 2-3 meter, dia mula teragak2 dan lama kelamaan dia sudah tak berminat nak bekerjasama. I guess hearing some form of distress in my voice in trying to encourage him to continue the test, dia terus lost interest. Bila buat mata sebelah lagi, the same thing occured. Semua yg besar dia tunjuk dgn betul, then bila dah mengecil, dia mula nak main2 which indicated yg kemungkinan besar dia tak nampak objek2 tersebut.

Goofing around lepas fail test ;-P

Ahhh, my heart just sunk, there and then. Looking at the nurse's expression made me feel worst. It might not be such a big issue for others. But trust me it very much bothers me. I have been wearing glasses since I was 10, even earlier than when my mum started wearing hers. I started having myopia (rabun jauh) & in my case a high dose of astigmatism too since I was 9. So I know how much myopia & astigmatism can have an effect on your life.  And to wonder that perhaps my young son would have to wear them even sooner, very much upsets me.


Anyway, the nurse tried to comfort me by saying mungkin Uwais penat dan got somewhat distracted. She suggested I come back again in the next two weeks. I was apparently feeling very disappointed with the result because I text my mum later that night. I wanted the family to know first hand.  DH just couldn't register at all nor accept it. So he designed a 'home test' for him and tried to 'train' his vision on the small objects, with hope he'll passed the next screening.

Two weeks passed and on the 9th of March, I brought Uwais in for the checkup again. This time, it was a different nurse, more child friendly and cheery. Tapi, resultnya tetap sama :-( The nurse suggest to bring him for a professional checkup to assess whether Uwais ada rabun jauh, ataupun ada masalah lain dgn matanya. I got the referral and chose to bring him to the Australian College of Optometry (ACO) in Carlton near Melbourne City in two weeks time. ACO is one major teaching eye/optometry institute in Melbourne, and have specialized clinic for children regardless of their nationality. Further, the institute is subsidized by the government, so I figured if he needed glasses, it's going to be a whole lot cheaper there. In the mean time, I have accept the fact that perhaps he has too much of my 'eye' genes ;-P. I don't feel so bad anymore. I figured so what if he needed glasses. It's not the end of the world for him. It may as well be the start of something good for him. He will look even 'dashingly cute' he..he..he and improve all his learning capabilities. 



ACO

So off we went, driving for the first time to Carlton. (On a side note: teruknya dah 3 tahun dok sini, baru nak belajar bwk keta masuk bandar hu..hu..hu..nak buat camne, tiket public transport kat Melbong ni naik lagi last few weeks. Ada pulak sehari sampai AUD7 sorang compared to AUD5.80 masa thn 2008 dulu. Mahalnya lah, dah lah lama pulak tu nak menyampai ke bandor, kena mengangkut pram & budak2 pulak). Alhamdulillah, selamat sampai, parking pun free for 2 hours.  

Seriously, I was very impressed with the ACO. Ini Optometry centre tau, bukannya Opthamologist (Doktor/Surgeon Mata), tapi clinicnya begitu besar dan professional sekali. Tunggu pun tak lama. They keep to their appointment time strictly, unlike some public hospital in Melbourne!

Playing while waiting...

One more si botak also have to tag along :-)

Ujian mata Uwais mengambil masa almost half an hour. Macam2 lah Cik Optometrist, Miss John tu tgk dan test. I like her very much. Cakapnya laju mcm bertih jagung. Tp sangat comforting to two stress parents and two botak boys he..he..he. So I was waiting for her to drop the bomb ;-) drum roll!!! 

Sampai ke 'tanah' cik optometrist tu menge'test' Uwais. 
Yg berkot putih tu, optometrist trainee observing the session

Yes, he said Uwais got some myopia aka rabun jauh. Tapi pada dia, Uwais masih muda, masih ada masa untuknya memperbetulkan kekurangan ketajaman pandangannya. Dan kemungkinan juga matanya belum develop sepenuhnya. Lagipun, kedua-dua belah matanya mempunyai kekurangan yang sama level. Bukan sebelah rabun dan sebelah lagi tidak ataupun ada masalah lazy eyes. So Miss John mencadangkan kami dtg kembali dlm masa 3 bulan untuk melihat sama ada mata Uwais ada sebarang perubahan. Tetapi setakat ini, dia tidak mencadangkan sebarang pemakaian cermin mata dsbnya. Cuma perlu kurangkan penggunaan peralatan yg ada too much glare mcm PC dsbnya. So Abg - no more PC games!! Luckily he goes to kinder now, so that solves the problem partly. We'll see how it goes in June. Hopefully, Insya Allah it does not deteriorate and who knows he'll have that 20..20 vision after all, Amin :-)


A/T: TAHNIAH to our cousin Ainaa for scoring 10 As in her SPM. We suggest that she trained to be Doktor Mata lah - there's just too many 'clients' in the family ;-)