CLVE

Clinical Low Vision Evaluation. 

That is what we did the week we were getting better from the Flu. And the truth is, it was NOT very fun and I left feeling so down that I spent part of the evening in my bed crying.

So the CLVE was set up through the Foundation for Blind Children of Arizona. We went to a location that was LOADED with as many snow birds as could fit in one location. They were all trying on canes, and getting equipment and stuff for the Macular degeneration and glaucoma. Instead of books to read, they had CCTV’s available so you could read the magazines that were left on the counter. The wall was filled with AS SEEN ON TV keyboards. It was a blind persons dream.

Ty was totally cool with the CCTV’s and we read a few books we brought with us. I filled out the countless pages of paper work and his vision teacher came to met us. Her name is Jenny. Tyler calls her Jenny the Pirate.

To make sure that Ty was at the top of his participating game, we kept him home from school. He had only gone on Wednesday and Thursday because of the flu. Ty had a low low key day, and he was properly bribed to participate.

So what is a CLVE, well we sure as heck didn’t know. So this is what we learned.

1. Intense background and medical history of the patient. In this case we actually struggled to get our doctors in Utah to provide us with a detail of ANYTHING. They just switched doctors and it was a real struggle so we went off the last detailed list of stuff that I had sent to school. Which in fact, was NOT what I had actually sent to school but lesson learned for me. Keep a better record. 
2. Depth perception, color testing, contrast of color, light sensitivity, ability to process what they see. While that seems like a lot, most can be done in a series of a few tests.  He did really well and they were very hard for him to do. When things get hard for him, he does a few things that signal to me that we are going to meltdown soon. 
3. Eye exam with the big chart. Ty does really well with these. He did what he could and then the sadness and meltdowns came into play. 
4. A lot of the rest of the appointment was what was Tyler like in a school setting, home setting, a situational setting. This is where it gets more and more frustrating for me as the mom. They also talk about future goals, things that will be happening and things that won’t be happening. Things that we can see as progression and things we can see as he gets older and things that we can expect as he gets older. 

The purpose of the CLVE was to get a specific piece of equipment that can go with Tyler throughout school. It will enlarge his papers, allow him to write, and also allows the computer to help him read when his eyes are to tired to continue to do so. Right now, he is minimal things that require long term memory to read, so it isn’t as much of an issue. But later in life, it will be. Especially when chapter books and texts books come into play. For now he needs basics, but he needs something basic and then some. 

Ty will be getting a Davinci CCTV for his class and it should follow him through school at the district. We are pretty impressed with the Davinci and really like it. It has way more features than he needs right this second in time but as he grows older he will need what it has to offer. 

We have found he has a severe sensitivity to light and should be wearing sunglasses, but transition lenses don’t come in his prescription and getting him to willingly change into sunglasses is a joke. And because his vision is crappy even with correction, he fights us to even wear those. 

His eye sight with correction is still really bad. He is known to have about 20/500 vision. That is REALLY bad. The picture below is what he sees even with correction. 

For now we work with Jenny, the pirate, Tyler’s vision teacher. She helps everyone enlarge everything and make sure that it is in the size he needs and how to help him do better. 

Ty doesn’t notice he can’t see, He pretends he can. People don’t realize he can’t see. We are trying to accommodate him in every way possible and to help others adapt to him in whatever way possible. My calling at church is his teacher, which has opened up a dialogue with the Church’s disabilities department to get some better visual impairment products and books. We are also trying to figure out what we can do to provide him with the stuff we need here at home. 

So don’t get to alarmed when he doesn’t know who you are or he wants to touch you or comes up really close. He is super smart and will remember who you are. He is also learning to get to the park on his bike with no help ( of course he won’t ever be able to go without someone following him because he can’t see cars coming down the street!) but he is doing really well navigating in a world that was not meant to be seen in the dark.