What Can Lyra See?
A lot…but just not as clearly as everyone else. Her vision now is about 20/200, which is legally blind, but this doesn’t mean she lives in a world of darkness. My vision without my glasses or contacts is 20/200. Very early on, we knew she could see something…we just weren’t sure what. She would look at toys, books, or objects that had very high contrast. We have a dark navy blue border along the top edge of the white walls in our bedroom. We would take Lyra in there, and she would look up at it and laugh hysterically. Of course so would we, it was so cute. This was as early as one or two months.
As her vision progressed, we could judge how well she could see based on how far away she could track or follow a lighted or unlighted object. Her field of vision is expanding more and more every day, but more slowly than a baby without a visual impairment.
Lyra’s vision is also affected by the nystagmus and strabismus. They affect her ability to focus on detail as well as her depth perception.
Because of the photophobia, it is also harder for Lyra to see things in rooms with very bright light or outside on a sunny day. Its like coming out of a movie theater into the bright sun. The glare can be almost painful. She see better in dim light. The bright light is very irritating on her eyes. Just the other day, we spent several hours at a mall. The mall had typical bright florescent lighting. Lyra would not leave her hat on no matter how many times I put it back on her head. By the time we left the mall, her eyes were red and watering.
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