It's All Connected

So, Ally has been complaining about being dizzy and of having pain in her inner ear for about 6 weeks. We have taken her in 3 times. Nothing. Come back if it persists. Finally, they gave her Amoxicillin, just in case. Nothing. Dizziness and pain continues. Took her in to see an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist. Nothing. Go see an Audiologist if it doesn't get better in the next ten days. Are you feeling the run around yet? Dizziness and pain continues. Just so happens Brother Kennington three streets over is also Dr. Kennington, Audiologist at large. Spoke to him at church, He says, sounds like a deep inner ear infection, bring her on in. May take some antibiotics through I.V. to clear it up. Great.

The following week, I took Ally in to her annual eye check up. For your information, she failed her Kindergarten eye test back in the day. After a few visits with the Doc it was determined that she had Myopia (nearsightedness) with a form of Astigmatism. She doesn't have a lazy eye, but if she doesn't wear her glasses at all times, she will basically lose her eyesight. Alrighty then, we will wear the glasses. She will be in them atleast until the age of 12. Usually when we go to these check ups all is well, continue wearing your glasses at all times. It is very repetitious, like the dentist. All is well, but continue flossing. yada yada. This time was a little different. As they started the exam I saw her angle her head to the side, still looking through her lenses, just at a slight angle. As soon as I saw her do it, I realized, SHE HAS BEEN DOING THAT A TON LATELY! Hello! Wake up Mom! They asked her to look straight on and continue. Well, without her glasses my little Al is at a 20/500 vision. With her glasses, she is at 20/70. Holy Crap! What happened? She is always at 20/20 with her glasses on. So, A LOT of mulah later, we have new lenses on the way, to get her back on track. Apparently she just had a huge growth change in her eyes and her lenses needed to be adjusted for the change. I felt like the biggest dunce of a mother for not recognizing what she was doing all that time and that it meant her lenses needed adjusting.

So, Monday, we had our appointment with Bro/Doc Kennington. He did all of his tests and he pronounced her with perfect ears and perfect hearing. I shouted, "Hallelujah! Ally, that means you can always hear me and your ears are NOT painted on! No more excuses for you!" She was thrilled, I am sure you can imagine.


So, what's the problem? Why the pain and the dizziness? Turns out her ears were mad at her eyes. Deep in your inner ear there is a little area that works quite closely with your eyes. It is what keeps you standing straight on your own two feet. Since her eyes were so far off kilter, it made it so her eyes and her ears were not agreeing with each other. It's called Vestibular Occular Reflex. So, now we are really excited to get those new lenses put in her glasses. Two birds with one stone!
Plus, no I.V. antibiotics! Truth be told, I never even told her that that was a possibility. Whew! Glad I didn't.

**UPDATE: Eye doc called this morning, lenses are FINALLY in. Yay! Going right after school to get them put in her frames! Yeehaw!**