Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Vision Update

Randy had an appointment with the opthamologist last Monday to check his vision. He had a full appointment with pupil dilation and all. The orthoptist comes in first and asks about how he is doing and check his tracking, reaction to light, etc... When she was done with his exam, she asked me if I felt there was improvement? I replied, "Yes.. he seems to be using his right eye and the patching does not seem to bother him as much."

Then they dilate his pupils and we wait. They add more drops and we wait some more (the darker your eyes, the longer is takes your pupils to dilate). The doc examines his eye. He says the optic nerve is the same, no better or worse (his optic nerve was damaged due to his brain bleeds shortly after birth). He remains slightly nearsighted, but no more than any child his age. And.......... he is using both his eyes!!!!

Mommy was right!

Now he is not using them at the same time, but he is using both of them. Prior to this he was only using the left eye. He was literally "turning off" the right eye. This is what happens when a child has strabismus (misalignment of the eyes). The child develops amblyobia (lazy eye) and begins to use only one eye for vision. The goal is to use both of them at the same time. We talked about what this means for his future eye sight. The doc fully expects that he will function as a seeing adult. He won't be a surgeon or a baseball player, but he will have enough vision to drive and do other daily functions.

That pleases me greatly. I have this strong desire for my son to be self sufficient. I have no idea how his brain injury will impact his future, but my fear has been that I will leave this earth and he will not be able to take care of himself. But I need to quit "borrowing trouble" as the old folks used to say and just take it one day at a time and remain faithful that God will make a way.

8 comments:

  1. Randy has strabismus? Did they say exotropia or umm..the other one? Marley has exotropia, but we don't know much about how it affects him. How do they know that Randy only used one of his eyes? Did they put a patch over one of them to help? We need to see the eye doctor but I'm not sure when his next appointment is scheduled...Does Randy see Dr. Liston?

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  2. He has strabismus exotropia. They cover his eyes and watch him track. They also dilate his pupils and check them. He gets vision therapy once a month from early intervention and I patch the stronger eye 4x per day. He goes to Liston. I could not deal with Bloom.

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  3. Hmm...I wonder why nobody has ever done anything like putting a patch over the eyes for Marley...and I've never even heard of vision therapy! Greene County Early Intervention SUCKS! Do you think that what they do has helped? Marley has the same thing: strabismus exotropia

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  4. I can't say that the vision therapy is all that helpful, but she gives me feedback on his progress and things to do with him; that has been valuable.

    I have heard wonderful things about Dr. Brenda Montecalvo. She is in our area. SHe does vision therapy and sends you home with daily exercises. I am really considering calling her to get a second opinion.

    The first opthamologist kept telling me his vision was fine, but my PT and my gut was telling me otherwise. You can always try Liston or Cincy for his eyes.

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  5. Oh, how exciting. I'm so glad that he had a good appt. Lucky little guy - and so cute!

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  6. Way to go, Randy! And Mommy too for sticking with the patching!

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  7. Hmm...Marley does go to Dr. Liston, but hasn't seen him in awhile. I need to find out when our next appointment is! I'm glad that Randy's able to see with both eyes! :-) That's good!

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