Henry's Eyes

In the background of normal life has been the ongoing concern over Henry's eyes. Steve and I first noticed a problem when he was about 8 months old. Every once in awhile, one of his eyes wouldn't track with the other one, especially when he looked at something that was any sort of distance. At his 9-month check-up, his pediatrician recommended we see a specialist. For the last few months, we've been back and forth to the doctor about 4 times. The specialist diagnosed Henry as having exotropia, meaning his eyes go out.

He prescribed a patch that Henry would wear one hour a day for 30 days. The doctor let us know that, for this particular condition, the patch either works or it doesn't; it's not like if we keep the patch on longer, that it keeps working better and better. We noticed an improvement with the patch, but not completely. At the end of October, we went back to the specialist and he told us that the patch works 100% in only about 1/3 of patients. For Henry, it just didn't work enough. 

Our next step was to wait and see. The specialist had us wait another month to see if Henry's eye muscles gradually strengthened on their own, or if they got worse. That was the hardest month for us. The first week that Henry didn't wear the patch at all, his eyes were crazy! Like chameleon crazy! We spent a lot of time laughing at his eyes and snapping to get hi to re-focus. The remaining three weeks, his eyes sort of plateaued - they (thankfully!) calmed down from that initial week, but we noticed them wandering multiple times a day, especially when he was tired. By the time we went back for our follow-up appointment at the end of November, Steve and I were both convinced that surgery was the only other option. We were really praying that the specialist thought so, too. 

We met with the eye doctor last week, and he felt that surgery was a definite next step! He walked us through the surgery, listened to any of our questions, and then answered his "Parents' Top Ten", which was really helpful, because it included things we hadn't even thought of. I then spoke to the Surgical Coordinator on the phone, and she was able to schedule us for surgery on December 17th. That was such a blessing, because we've met our insurance deductible this year, and were praying that we'd be able to do the surgery before the end of the year. So, thank you, Lord, for small, but meaningful answers to prayer!

What's our next step? We have a pre-op appointment this Wednesday, the 9th, to get Henry's eyes measured one more time, and sit down with the Surgical Coordinator face-to-face to discuss times, surgery prep, etc. We have an appointment with the pediatrician on Monday, the 15th for Henry's final "all clear" that he's healthy enough for surgery. Surgery will be early morning on the 17th, but we're still waiting for exact details. Our post-op appointment is on December 23rd. (Downtown...bummer.)

Whew! So, thank you so much to everyone who's been praying! I am the most nervous about his recovery, I think. My girlfriend told me to be prepared for when he's on the table and going under anesthesia; she said it's really emotional to watch them go limp and then have to walk away, so I'm not looking forward to that at all. The specialist also warned that the whites of Henry's eyes will be blood-red for the first few weeks following his surgery. But mostly, I'm nervous about his recovery and how that affects his life and his sleep. He's mostly weaned now, so nursing is not an instant calm for him anymore. That's really hard for a 14-month old, so that's my biggest prayer request - that Henry wouldn't feel pain, and would be able to feel as normal as possible following his surgery.