Dr. Cossette,

Thank you for helping our daughter improve her vision in the short time we were in Kansas. 

Helena was told she might need glasses while we spent our year in Lenexa, Kansas, so we booked an appointment with Custom Eyes. The eye care store was right up the block from our house, and whatever we’d have done would mostly be covered. Little did we know that Helena would get an opportunity to benefit from having a dedicated doctor named Chris Cossette.

Our pediatrician’s office had tested the kids. One of those machines was used, and it claimed both kids were fine, but when the nurse at school conducted some eye tests, one of the kids seemed to need glasses. I called the doctor’s office to see if we’d missed something, but I was told she didn’t need glasses and that there were no real results to speak of. This year (in Jacksonville), we’d get an eye doctor that kind of mailed it in with her, too, saying that he was disappointed that her eyes were not getting worse because he couldn’t prescribe new glasses to be sold by his greasy salesman. But this is Jacksonville, FL, where people would scam their own grandmothers. That’s not the way it went for us in Kansas.

Dr. Cossette tested Helena and he gave us a prescription. We were able to pick out a decent pair of glasses from the bargain area. In fact, the salespeople were fine with it, unlike our store here, where the salesman tells everyone those are no good. Yes, Custom Eyes was a better eyeglass store, but it was what came next that was really wonderful.

Dr. Cossette talked about how Helena had one eye that had gotten lazy, and that there was a way to train it to work harder. I’d read about this kind of treatment years ago, too late to try it for myself, but I was excited about the possibility it might work with my daughter. I know how much glasses or contacts get in the way in sports, and she’s the sporty type. But it was more than just telling us about some technique that might work. Dr. Cossette believed in it, and he told us his own story of losing his vision (to some degree) because he didn’t do what he was recommending. Not only did he push the technique to train her eye, but he also had us schedule quick checks so that he could monitor the progress. He told us that she was still young enough that we should see results, and we did! She wore the patch daily, and we went back a few times.

Custom Eyes even gave me the actual prescription without a hassle. It was all going so well, but then we had to move. She kind of lagged a bit with the patching in Jacksonville, and her first appointment just resulted in a new pair of glasses. No encouragement to keep patching or desire to watch the progress. I was going to contact Dr. Cossette to see if he could recommend anything at this point. Her eye has improved so that she really doesn’t need the glasses she has, but without a person guiding us like we had back in Lenexa, I’m not sure exactly what to have her do to make sure her lazy eye stays active. I suppose I’ll have to search online and hope someone with as much care for his patients as Dr. Cossette has posted something useful.

I can be a cynical person at times, and I’m not sure that I’ve ever had a doctor, surgeon (too many), dentist, optometrist, orthodontist, nurse, or orderly that I’d recommend to anyone else. Well, there was Nurse Danette from back when I had shoulder surgery at the Mayo Clinic, but she was an angel and I was in high school and on morphine. And Dr. Howell, my pediatrician in Milwaukee, but that’s it. I guess I always feel like my appointment is interrupting someone’s tee time, but Dr. Cossette took time to explain what we were doing and why, and he did it with an understanding that Helena needed to be part of the discussion.

If you’re in Johnson County, Kansas, I’d recommend checking out Custom Eyes. I did not interact with any of the other doctors there, but we did have an excellent experience with Chris Cossette. I know one time I had to call to make an appointment, and I’d forgotten his name, so I said it was the doctor with the French last name. But he’s not a European hot shot with new-fangled ideas--his biography said he’s from Kansas. I do know this for sure: if he wants to relocate to Jacksonville, he’ll have four customers waiting for an appointment. Well, three, at least...I kind of skip the whole eye exam thing.