What's one more

Today Sophie, my mom and I made the annual trek to the Special Needs Vision Clinic that is about an hour and a half away.  In my typical style for this appointment I got completely lost and swore a blue streak may have uttered some words under my breath as we were a half hour late at that time.  But we finally made it and they were completely understanding and we started the appointment.

Sophie was understandably pretty tired by the time we got there but she was able to do the functional tests and we talked with the Dr. a while.  At the end of the two hour appointment we went over the report they would write for us.  The Dr. said that Sophie now has a diagnosis of legally blind.  She has had the diagnosis of severe cortical vision impairment for years now, but this was the first time that the words legally blind were used as a diagnosis as well.

I processed that for a moment and then we talked about some other issues regarding her vision and the start of school, seizures and the like and then said our goodbyes and we headed home.

While we were driving through the rolling hills of farm land on this beautiful fall night with all the trees part way through there colour changes I started to think about what I had heard.  What was surprising was that it didn't matter.  When I had heard the diagnosis of severe CVI for the first time I teared up, I could feel the lump in my throat and it seemed like it was one more thing that she had to deal with.  Not that I was surprised by it, but it was now out there, on paper and official.  This time was different.  Hearing that Sophie was legally blind didn't phase me at all.  I said that to my mom and realized that I was in a different place now.  Sophie is no different this afternoon than she was this morning.  Even though it wasn't a diagnosis that I had expected or ever even considered, it was ok.

I know that we do the best we can to make her environment just right for play and learning and we will continue along that path.  It was just another diagnosis to add to the already very long list, so really, what's one more.  If anything, it makes me that much more proud of her for everything that she accomplishes in spite of all her diagnoses.