Double Vision Specialist Appointment - Marshalltown

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 -

Today Ed and I picked up Oliver from school and headed an hour south of Waterloo to see Dr. Donny Suh, a double vision specialist at the Wolfe Eye Clinic in Marshalltown. First we saw a nurse that did some testing with Oliver. She had him read some charts and then did some other tests with his eyes. He had 20/20 vision in one and and better than 20/20 in his other eye so that wasn't a problem. She also asked us if we noticed that one pupil was larger than the other and I told her that I never did. The doctor had stepped out to go to lunch so we waited a bit for him to come back in order for him to see Oliver before his eyes were dialated. He did so well while they both checked him out! The nurse said that his eyes looked a bit droopy and just wanted Dr. Suh to be able to see him before she had changed anything with regard to his eyes.

So when he came in he did many of the same tests that the nurse had previously done and he said that it looked like his muscles on the outer sides of his eyes were paralyzed, causing his eyes to float in toward his nose, which produced double vision. He said that if he were a 'betting man' he would bet that it was because of a virus and that in a month's time it would correct itself. He also said that to be on the safe side, we should do some blood work to rule out a blood disorder and an MRI to rule out any possible brain problems. I knew from other people's situations that double vision was a sign of a brain tumor so I knew that was why he wanted Oliver to get an MRI, but the doctor didn't want us to worry. So... with that, we had an appointment set up for the 21st of December for an MRI and blood work at Covenant hospital in Waterloo, and headed home.

Seeing Double

December 2009 - Double Vision & Dr. Boeke Visit

For the last month and a half or so Ed and I noticed that whenever Oliver looked at something, he would tuck his chin into his chest and kind of look up through his eyebrows. Whenever we asked him about this, he would just laugh it off, but when Ed was off work after I had Finn, one day Ed called Ollie over to him and told him to look directly at Ed. When Oliver did this, Ed noticed that one of his eyes floated in toward his nose. Oliver then said that he saw two couches. Ed called our eye doctor here in town and got Oliver in to see him two days later. Dr. Stephen Boeke had thought that it may be Fourth Nerve Palsy, but he wasn't sure so he referred us to a double vision specialist, Dr. Donny Suh, in Marshalltown at the Wolfe Eye Clinic.