1- I really liked Oliver Burkeman’s newsletter today, in which he talked about life as a string of beads and related this idea to how current events are impacting all of our lives right now (including the anxiety produced in all of us). His point about anxiety always being about the future vs what is actually in front of us resonated with me. He didn’t provide a link to the specific newsletter edition, but his subscription link is here.
2- I tried Manicurist Green Flash nails! (ZERO affiliation just to be clear, I bought this kit myself to replace one A was using from amazon that had dubious ingredients).
The verdict: I am a fan. A prefers the toxic kit because it looks more like gel. Wasn’t the point of gel to look like regular nail polish? I guess that perspective is for old people like me. Ahh well. I am still going to encourage use of this kit instead.
They haven’t chipped and became fairly hard instantly with the LED light. I think I would rather do this than go to the salon for nails (because $ and I sometimes mess it up which is infuriating). But I am going to stick with salon pedicures.
3- G got new glasses. They are adorable. BUT her eyes are worsening pretty quickly (went from like -0.75 to -1.75 in 1 year). Hoping she doesn’t turn into me (-11). Our optometrist talked about the option of preventative treatment with drops — anyone doing this!? My uncorrected vision is bad (VERY), but in contacts I am perfectly corrected (and I have no astigmatism or anything so I can use disposables). So I’m not sure worth attempting to prevent in G’s case?
Genetics. They are interesting.
4- I am down to less than 1 weekday of call (plus the weekend). It was a really weird week — incredibly high census and overall busy, but atypical cases. I felt a lot better about handling it than I often do. My call was definitely ‘backloaded’ in 2025 — I was on in August, September, October, and will be on in December even though I only take 6 weeks per year. 2026 is more evenly distributed. ALSO after this weekend I’m only covering one more weekend for quite some time (I swapped out my December weekend by providing someone else coverage in August and am SOOOO GRATEFUL to my previous self for volunteering to do that).
(Sorry, I had to sneak in an update. I know this is probably very monotonous to many of you reading this but at least there were other things in this post!)
5- 100 days left in 2025 starting on Monday (I was reminded by the Happier podcast). It’s a perfect time frame to pick something to track or focus on! I don’t actually know what I’d pick (doing well with my no Reddit streak, amazingly). Maybe something reading or listening focused.
AND OH! MY HOBONICHI ORDER SHIPPED!!!!!!
I also received my Ashley Shelly order of the Amanda’s Favorites collab monthly planner for 2026. It’s so, so pretty. My planner stack is going to be *chef’s kiss* this year.
26 Comments
Hi!! https://www.instagram.com/drrupawong?igsh=bTM2NnFyMXVxMjRw
She talks of low dose atropine for her kids. She is very informed and seemingly kind-she’s responded to dms with empathy and thoughtfulness
Hello. I usually lurk but both my daughters have been treated by our optometrist. One wears contacts overnight and is able to see well enough during the day that she doesn’t need anything. My 13 year-old does the drops every night and it has stopped the worsening of her eye. It took a little bit to get used to the drops, but it’s really no big deal and I’m happy that her eyesight isn’t getting worse.
Hi! I am also a lurker. My oldest just started the drops for myopia management too, she’s 9, and the transition has been going really well so far. It’s another thing in the routine but hoping that it can slow down/stop the progression. Shes on track at -4.5 to outpace my husband’s -6 soon. So far no regerts. Big decisions!
I’ll be curious to see what your commenters says about atropine drops. Apparently they are not technically FDA approved so you pay out or pocket (which is fine, but something others told me). Paul has gone from -1.25 to -3.75 in about 2 years. He has a 6 month check up this fall to make sure they haven’t worsened. Last year he got new glasses in August and then failed the in-school vision test in Feb/Mar. His eye doctor wants us to try contact lenses or drops but it’s hard to see him doing that at age 7… and he is not the sturdiest kid in terms of tolerating procedures and such. At first Phil thought the optometrist was the equivalent of a snake oil salesman but then other friends went to this practice and did not get this suggestion so it’s clear that they aren’t recommending drops or contacts unless they are truly needed (my husband is a hard core questioner). My vision is -4.50 so he’s on track to surpass my Rx…
I feel like your call was very backloaded back in 2023 or 2024, too! It’s tough when that happens. This is totally different than call but my travel is very back loaded as well. I travel something like 8 out of the next 9 weeks. It’s going to be a bit rough.
Yes, wanted to comment that my daughter is doing the overnight CRT hard contacts for myopia control. So they reshape the corneas overnight and the next day her vision is 20/20. It can wear off later in the day…..I guess such things didn’t exist when I was a kid, I’m severely near sighted but no astigmatism–like -8.5 in contacts in both eyes. So this as I’m told is a way to keep kids from progressing so far, since being so myopic is bad in various ways for the eyes? Long term, I think when her eyesight stabilizes she could just wear a regular daytime contact or low prescription glasses. In any case, the learning curve for putting the contacts in was hard for an elementary kid but other than that it has had a lot of advantages, like she can go swimming and all the daytime activities like that without worrying about glasses. She started around age 8 and we had to help but now at age 10 is doing all the contact related tasks herself.
This is very helpful as my son is 7.5, so close to your daughter’s age when she started using the overnight contacts! I am hoping his vision stabilizes but it seems kind of unlikely given how aggressively it’s declined the last 2 years.
Your highlighting the printed list was the biggest ‘duh i can also do that’ moment I had this week because omg, we always have a list for miles and I only ever need to see and write notes on like 1/3 max…which I could put on a separate list…
Infectious Disease, our lists are so long, but we’re really just waiting for y’all to send for culture
wow I can imagine colors would help on those giant ID lists!!!! Ours looked like an ID list this week – it went onto 3 pages (usually it’s one). Wild! (I’m sure yours is still 3x as long as our ‘long’ list!!!!)
Ask your Doctor about the FDA-approved MiSight 1-day lenses. My daughter has been wearing them for a year, and they seem to have stopped her eyes from getting worse.
My daughter does the Misight contacts and she hasn’t progressed at all since wearing them.
My son’s vision started deteriorating rapidly in the third grade after having no issues until then. We did glasses for a year and vision kept getting worse (-4.00 at the start of fourth grade last year). After talking with friends and researching, we started the daily Misight contact lenses and his vision has stabilized (still -4.00 at a check this summer). We opted for this path because we weren’t convinced the drops would be as effective (hard to get drops into this particular kid!). My husband and his family have very poor vision so we were very concerned, particularly since my husband has had retina issues (he is over 50 now). We had to help our son put the contacts in at first but he can now do it all completely on his own.
My son is in the same boat but abjectly unable to do contacts.
i cannot imagine G tolerating the contacts honestly! Or C. But I am going to look into the atropine drops . . .
Interesting! I didn’t even know there were drops/contacts for myopia. I’m -6, which is just bad enough to be annoying because I feel like Velma from Scooby Doo if I ever misplace my glasses, lol. I’m kind of surprised that none of my kids has needed glasses yet because my DH needed them at age 7 or 8. I’m sure we’ll get there eventually!
It is wild to me that there is stuff out there to fix kids’ eyes. I’m stuck here with -8 and astigmatism.
Same. What a time to be alive!
Ophthalmologist here, although not a pediatric ophthalmologist. I have my daughter in multifocal contact lenses (daily wear) and atropine, so a combo of treatments was needed to slow down her myopia progression. Why bother with slowing myopia given that it is a correctable condition with glasses or contact lenses? Because myopia, especially high myopia (more than 6 diopters), puts you at increased risk over the long term for retinal detachment, glaucoma, and myopic degeneration (a form of retinal degeneration). There is now a myopia epidemic among kids, especially in East Asia, and while a lot is driven by genetics, there is also evidence that spending more time outside is protective and so environment is also at play.
Myopia treatment currently boils down to low dose atropine (depending on your kid might be the easiest to do, but know that myopia progression can rebound once you stop it), daily disposable multifocal contact lenses (my 9 year old takes them in and out herself, and started in them at age 5), or orthokeratology (these are the contact lenses that you sleep in overnight to reshape the cornea. Ophthalmologists generally do not love these because we see all the complications from them — there’s a reason you’ve always been told NOT to sleep in your contact lenses). There are also new glasses treatments (special designs) but I don’t think they’re available in the US yet.
I think the other useful thing to know is that myopia progression tends to be the fastest at the beginning, as in the first few years after it is diagnosed, especially if you are diagnosed young, like before age 10.
This is SUPER helpful- thank you!!!
Had zero idea any of this was possible! Thank you for the education! I myself recently got a severe dry eye diagnosis, another thing I didn’t know was a possibility – I feel like preventive eye health needs to be a thing we are taught in schools!
I am finding these comments on atropine and contact lenses as myopia preventives FASCINATING. TY for the reminder that medical evidence continues to evolve. 🙂
This is fascinating! I had horrible vision and got PRK a few years ago. Thankfully, my kids do not seem to have inherited my vision issues (which, frankly, surprises me, since my eyes were so bad), but I had no idea there were drops or other things that could help reverse the issues. What a time to be alive, indeed, per Amy above.
Your nails look great and I love that color! I was hopeful that invisalign would help my kid stop biting but it has not. Where there’s a will…
Hooray for call being over! My husband just started call and I am ready for him to be done. He may feel that even more intently.
You have tons of great comments already but 2 of my kids did atropine drops – my daughter started early, maybe around 8, and before they were as widely used as they are today. It helped immensely (I’m -11 too, so I was nervous for her) – she still has a pretty strong prescription, but it slowed her rate of worsening, and she’s leveled off at about -6 at almost 16. She did also need patch treatment for a few years to correct a lazy eye. She has stopped the drops due mostly to laziness…..
My son also started the drops early, but they caused some cross eye/double vision issues with him. I actually now am going to ask about the overnight contacts!! He’s only 10 so still has a ways to go.
My middle kid is the only one with minimal eye correction needed – yes, genetics are wild!
Annabel is my only kid that can see! Neither kid seems willing to try contacts (though will try harder) but drops I really think they could handle and seems worth a try!!
We’re starting the eye drops in January for our seven year old. My husband and I both have glasses and have since we were kids. If this will help his vision stabilize/stay good it seems worth it. We’re going to add it to the bedtime routine.
that’s awesome! we have an appt with an eye dr that does this over thanksgiving break for both G & C. we will see what they recommend!!