O Say Can U C

"Read the smallest row of letters that you can."

Guess where we were? Again. Yet thankfully it wasn't another daughter with vision problems. It was the same one who finally after months of complaining to me was taken in only to find she was halfway blind. And then hallelujah, she got glasses and could see and all was right with the world and she found something else to continually nag me about...or so we thought.

We went for her annual checkup, and yes, we were a few months late on that. And she went bopping in to ace her vision screening with her sassy pink spectacles and...failed. What? So it was recommended that we go back to the eye doctor and get her prescription adjusted. Well, we all know how Johnny on the spot I am and according to Alli she could see just fine since apparently any bit of corrected vision was better than what she had before.

But then she started getting headaches. Moaning and groaning about her vision going out and seeing white lights and her head wanting to split open. And Motrin not working. And since my yearly deductible was almost up, we went back.

She sat in the chair and was more nervous than when she was taking finals a few weeks ago. Really, how hard is it to spew off a row of letters?

"I E ? T V"

"Can you see the middle one?"

"Is it a D?"

"No, try again."

"C?"

"What shape is it?"

"It's round."

"G?"

"What shape is round?"

"A circle. Is it a Q?"

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you my straight A honors student. Who doesn't know her alphabet.
And after all that the doctor uttered a few Hmmms and a couple of Ahhhs and scrunched up her forehead and I asked what was wrong.

"Well her vision is actually getting worse."

"Is that normal?"

"Well, it's not abnormal."

"Can you please translate that for me...what exactly does that mean?"

What it meant was new lenses. Thankfully at half off because I am apparently a frequent buyer now. And it meant that I made her some flashcards. Because that dang alphabet is costing me a lot of money. And I'm taking the diagnosis of her headaches having nothing to do with her eyes and the guess that they "sound like classic migraines" and will call her pediatrician as soon as her office opens for an appointment sometime in the near future.

Because complaining about headaches...well, that's my gig.