Five year old having some trouble with her eyes blurring (never both at the same time). Its not bad, she can still see well enough to read, watch TV, etc without squinting, doesn't run into things and she's not rubbing her eyes. I've spoken to two doctors and they say to get her an appointment with an opthalmologist before school starts. I can get an appointment next week.

Problem: The kids are on Ohio Medicaid, which is usless outside of Ohio except in cases of emergencies. I live in Tennessee. My ex demands I take her next week and spend three to four hundred dollars (she says she'll pay and while I know she will, I also know she can't afford it) instead of a twenty-five dollar co-pay in 3 weeks since she'll be picking them up and taking them back to Ohio then.

If this were a problem (or realized problem) when they first got here over a month ago, I wouldn't have thought twice and taken her anyway, but there's little sense in either of us spending/splitting/reimbursing three to four hundred dollars NEXT week rather than the co-pay in THREE weeks when they're back in the network area.

Opinions?

Make an appointment ASAP. I do not care who pays, I do not care if it is in Tenn. or Ohio, just get that child to the Doctors.

Does all that really matter? You are the father, step up and take care of your kid. Pay the dang Doctor in instalments if you have to. Or make an appointment in Ohio and drive your a$$ up there so your daughter can get care.

Sheesh. How would you feel if it is something serious that could be fixed, if caught early and you just waited 3 flipping weeks.

She is 5 years old for flips sake, she can't drive herself to the doctors.

Justme,

You make several good points, but I'm sure you agree we ought not to respond that way to every possible medical problem. That would be insane.

Intermittent blurring of one eye at a time? I think dont is taking the intelligent approach here, and doing a little research and asking questions before reactively wasting money based on fear and over-protective parenting.

Dont, exactly how do you know that her vision is becoming unclear? What does she say? Have you tried testing her vision in some way? Do her eyes water? Does it seem to happen at any particular time of day, or under any particular circumstance?

If its both, but never simultaneously, this implies the blurriness is intermittent. Do you have any sense of how long it lasts?

I wonder if "parenting talk" is the best place for a male to pose a question like this, lol.

There are a lot of people here strongly influenced by their (admirable) desire to be protective of kids, and then some people with a chip on their shoulder against irresponsible single dads.

OP stated that 2 Doctors have told him to get her checked out. 2/3's of OP's post was about money. I would have thought he did his research.

In my opinion, it is not wasted money, over-protection or insane to save a child's eyes. JMO

I want to be clear that, overall, I agree with you that he ought to have her checked out, and soon. I only disagree with the implication that somehow he is doing something wrong by taking the time to think about it and ask other peoples opinions. So I hope nothing I say comes across as suggesting I disagree with your overall position.

I would like to point out that the doctors have to say she should get checked out. There is a non-zero chance that a very serious disease could be causing this, and doctors can't really say anything else in those circumstances.

I also didn't mean to imply that simply taking a child to get checked out immediately would be over-reactive - only that always responding that way would be. Again, I side with taking a day or two to research and get other opinions. There is a lot of grey area between the insanity of running to the doctor for each sniffle, and the insanity of denying chemo because "God will save my child".

Also, not to be argumentative but this is a pet-peeve of mine:



Of course its not insane to save a childs eyes, but we aren't discussing whether or not that is insane... unless you assume that running to the doctor immediately is absolutely necessary to save the childs eyes. This is a kind of strawman and false dichotomy, at the same time. What we are really talking about is risk.

If you have any children in your care right now, one of them MIGHT have cancer. Why aren't you at the hospital demanding a test?? Because you are making a sane evaluation of risk. My take on the OP is that he is doing the same thing.

It was a week ago, she was playing a game on the computer and started saying stuff like "oh, now I can't see" and she made this statement a couple or three times. I thought nothing of it because she didn't talk to me directly, so I assumed it was part of the game. A minute later, I was watching over her shoulder and saw nothing about any kind of blindness effect in the game, yet she said it again ... so I asked. She said she couldn't see out of her right eye.

We turned off the game, I looked into her eyes to see if there was any variation in dilation. She covered her right eye, could see fine. Covered the left and she said she could see how many fingers, but it was a little blurry. Since this was 7 PM, I started making calls the next day to see who would accept the insurance.

We spent the rest of the week at my sister's and she didn't complain and when I asked, she said she was fine. I was without vehicle there, but I continued to make calls there as well (she lives almost two hours from where I do), but no one was accepting. I did talk to a doc, however who said it sounded like an allergic reaction and could be attributed to allergens she's not used to.

At the end of the week, she was saying it was occurring again. It wasn't until today when a nurse at one of the offices called me back and explained to me why no one was accepting the insurance: Medicaid is only applicable in the state giving the benefits unless its an emergency. She asked the doctor about it and he said the same ... could be allergies, just make sure she sees an opthalmologist before she goes back to school.

So that's where we are now, the earliest I can get an appointment is next Thursday (28th) and their mother is picking them up on the 14th of August. She can easily make an appointment for the 15th this early, so we're talking about a two week difference of three hundred plus dollars that neither of us can afford right now.

I've no sense of when it starts or how long it lasts because she never says anything until I ask, which I've done about twice a day and the answer always comes in the form of her pointing to one eye or the other "this one today". She doesn't squint, eyes don't water, she reads just as well as normal, no headaches and she never rubs her eyes.

Read. I said both docs said she should have an eye exam before school starts ... neither of them flipped out and said "immediately! Go now! Why are you calling?!"

And just for clarification ... if all this started when she got here over a month ago, I'd have not worried about the money ... I'm talking about a matter of two weeks, not two months.

If the problem was allergies, then it wouldn't be the other more serious concerns....

I wonder whether the doctors are thinking 'allergy->watering->blurred vision', or if there is a way that allergies could blur vision without watering.

If the former, it seems like you would be able to see, with careful inspection, whether or not her eyes are watering.

If these doctors are saying 'before school starts', I wonder if they mean: 'get her tested before her education suffers from a vision problem", or "get her tested within two weeks".

My son had the same problem at that age.(not to undermine how or weather to take her in or not )Took him in,in his case.It was that some kids get that as they are growing.But you never know.
I would watch her very close.Try to what could be causing it.And untill she is seen bye someone.
J.M.O.

If they wanted her tested in two weeks,that is what they would of told you.you would think!

Well, I gave them the details, even stressed that it was never both eyes at once and the lack of any other symptoms and that was their response.

I have no basis for the following hypothesis, but my first thought when she told me was 'it sounds like her eyes are figuring out which is the dominant', but I haven't researched the possibility.

Sorry, double post

Call the insurance company, they will be able to tell you what doctors/opthamologists are covered and get phone numbers for them. Vision is nothing to mess with, it may be nothing but you don't want to take that chance. Good luck and I hope everything works out well.

As per original post, Medicaid doesn't cover out-of-state except for emergencies. This is not an emergency they would cover.

New info: The periods of blurriness only last between ten minutes and half an hour at a time and then she's fine. No indication of cause yet.

Get her some children's allergy medicine, Zyrtec is non-drowsy, your pharmacist might be able to suggest others. Give it to her until the 27th or so. If she hasn't reported any more blurry vision episodes, then I would cancel the visit.

I'm wanting to get all political up in here, but I won't for your daughter's sake. I hope everything turns out well for her and hopefully this doesn't cause too much tension between you and her mother.

Ha! Appreciated and that's actually a really good suggestion, thanks. The ex actually had her taking Zyrtec and suggested I do the same (her reason, as expressed to me at the time was "just in case, I don't know if they're actually allergic or not"), but not being a big fan of unnecessary medication, I tried her without for the first week she was here. Since she didn't suffer any symptoms, I didn't consider it further.

Thanks all for the opinions and suggestions.