DOUBLE TROUBLE: DR. K'S STORY
I'd like to take you waayyy back to when I was a youngster, and open your eyes to why I became an eye doctor. I don’t remember all the details of my childhood, probably due to some unfortunate soccer concussions, but that is a story for another day. Most of what I’ll be telling is from memories of my mom telling this story through her eyes countless times…
I was definitely a toddler that liked to do things my way and liked to do them myself. Just as a reference, I taught myself how to climb out of my own crib, much to my mother’s dismay, as she caught me crawling up the countertop in the kitchen to find food in the cupboard. Yep, I was kind of a mess! So when I started placing my drinking cups on the counter, or more precisely half on the counter, and breaking or dropping every single one, this wasn’t a huge surprise. However, the more and more it happened, and probably the more and more my mom got frustrated at me, she noticed that it was routine. I would place it in the same spot, thinking I was placing it on the very edge of the counter. From my vantage point, I was doing it just as my mom had told me to, and I probably told her that too! But something didn’t seem quite right. At that time, she had also noticed my right eye had a tendency to do it’s own thing as well. My independent mindset had rubbed off on my right eye, and it would often be found looking inward, more toward my nose in photos, while my left eye would be focused straight ahead. My mom decided to take me to see an ophthalmologist. She did her research and had recommendations that led her to take me to the best ophthalmologist in the area for my issues, Dr. Arthur Rosenbaum at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA.
Slight eye turn seen on my right eye (left side of this picture)
He confirmed that my mom’s instincts were right on target! I had strabismus, esotropia to be exact, and would need glasses right away to maintain as much vision as possible and help me to see a single image. I can only imagine the thoughts running through my mom’s head… Was this my fault? Could I have done something to prevent this? Should I have brought her in earlier? What in the world is strabismus? Is my baby going to ever be able to see 20/20? Can she see me? She needs glasses, but she’s only 1, soon to be 2 years old? Are you sure? How is a toddler even going to keep glasses on?!?!
Dr. Rosenbaum was certain, and looking back at those pictures with my fantastic 80s style, it wasn’t super obvious at all times, so kuddos to him! Strabismus simply means the eyes are not aligned to see the target together. One eye focuses straight at all times, while the other is either turned inward (esotropia) or outward (exotropia). The amount of eye turn seen can vary from time to time or at different angles and will be much worse when fatigued. In my case, my left eye was doing all the work as best it could, while my right eye was off in la la land just watching my left do it all. Because of this, I was seeing two images. When I was setting my drinking cups on the counter, I was setting it exactly on the edge… the edge of the counter that my right eye saw, which was imaginary, so it would fall every time. My right eye had steered me astray and made me see a duplicate image of everything and not an accurate image due to the incorrect position of my right eye. It may seem crazy that I was seeing double and didn’t even know it, but oftentimes kids are seeing double or blurry but don’t have a perception of clear or single to know what they are seeing is not right. Only after having an eye exam and getting an accurate prescription on their eyes, can they see the world as it was meant to be seen and enjoyed.
I mean, look at that trend setter in action pointing out all she can see!
That’s exactly the aha moment that I had! When I got my first pair of glasses, my mom always tells me that I was pointing out all the freckles on her face for the first time. I’m sure she was a crying mess over this realization that I had never seen her freckles before this instance. I can’t really blame her though. It was a big day! I have to also add that I was a trend setter from the start… You know those clear frames that are all the rage now? Yep, those were my first pair of glasses! Complete with Bugs Bunny on the side, of course. You can now see those glasses framed in our pretest room for a little blast from the past.
All set with my cute glasses, I continued to wear glasses 24/7 from age one and a half until age seven when I had enough! My vision was improving little by little, and even though our goal of seeing just well enough to pass a driver’s test was still far from obtainable, I was sooo over the glasses thing. I probably pestered my mom every hour of every day for months that I NEEDED contacts and NEEDED them now! I was all about the instant gratification, and still am. Sorry not sorry! So at my next exam, I finally had her convinced that I could get contacts. By this time, we had switched to a local optometrist, Dr. Frank Yoon, for our annual eye exams and for my first contact lens exam. My mom was hesitant at first to move to a new doctor, but we can’t say enough good things about Dr. Yoon and his staff. I’m incredibly grateful for their kind hearts and support along the way. They are simply the best thing that could have happened to us along our journey! My mom says that I insisted on asking him all the questions and even told Dr. Yoon early on that I was going to do what he does when I grow up. If only we knew then just how serious I was about this fact! Back to the action though… if you’ve ever worn contacts or even attempted, you know that putting them in the very first time is always a challenge, and for a seven year old, it seemed nearly impossible. I was exhausting Dr. Yoon’s very patient staff at my contact lens training as I was there for what I’m sure felt like three or four hours for them and days for me, but I finally got them in! And then scratched my cornea from trying so hard. Whoops! When you scratch your cornea, it’s full of nerves but no blood vessels. You’ll feel an intense pain and light sensitivity, but no bleeding or sign that anything is wrong. I was back to see Dr. Yoon. That was a lesson in contact lens hygiene, and patience, that I’ll never forget!
Hello, contacts at age seven!!
I would like to say it was smooth sailing from there, my vision continued to improve, contacts were amazing, I was able to pass the vision part of the driver’s test, which might I add was indeed the scariest and most nerve-wracking part of the permit test, while the lack of depth perception can be a bit challenging when trying to pass the driving portion for anyone who really only functions with one eye, but I did it all! Just as I was starting to really hit my stride and focusing on getting all my pre-optometry courses in the works at my first semester at Cal State Fullerton, I was smacked in the eye with a soccer ball in my indoor soccer league. My vision immediately went hazy, and as I went to the bathroom to wash my face and get back out there, I noticed blood had started to pool in between my cornea and iris, or colored part of my eye. As this was not my first eye issue, I knew exactly who to call. My mom’s nerves were intensifying as I’m sure her recollections of my first eye doctor visits were surfacing. Dr. Yoon told me to come to his office right away after hours so that he could take a look. Again, isn’t he amazing?! Unfortunately, it was more severe than he had hoped, and I was off to the ER for immediate care. My eye had taken a big hit and the iris was actually pushed backward by the pooling of blood. I was given some medications to take and told to follow up with a local ophthalmologist. When I followed up with him a few days later, the bleeding had gone down, my vision was slowly coming back, and he told me that this traumatic incident had put me at a higher risk for glaucoma in the future. Add it to the list! At this point, I didn’t know much about glaucoma at all, but this proved to be just another learning experience for me and more proof that I was on the right path to my career.
As you can see, it has been a bumpy road of twists and turns to becoming an eye doctor. And even after optometry school and practicing for a few years, the journey continued as I had a retinal detachment just last December (check out the full story here). From my experiences being a first-hand patient, the eyes have always intrigued me. I’m so proud and happy to have come this far and be able to educate my patients just as I learned from every instance or condition that I have encountered. It’s a joy to be able to calm the worries of moms in my office and give the gift of sight to all my patients young and old. I hope that I will always be able to not only put glasses on my patient’s faces, but also smiles!
Check out Dr. Bovy’s story here!
