little four eyes

In order to distract myself from the surgery these past couple of nights after Zoe went to bed, I did a bit of clean up on the blog as well as around my house (nervous energy anyone?). A couple of changes then:

• Books for kids – I’ve linked to worldcat.org, it’s kind of a meta-library catalog that should let you look up any book and see what the nearest library is that carries it.  It works in the U.S. for sure, I don’t know how well it works for other countries, it depends on whether your libraries participate.  The link will also show you a cover image, give you a few more details on the book and link to its page on Amazon.
• Resources for Parents / Communities, Listservs & Forums – I’ve added a new section for listservs, communities and forums about kids and vision problems and glasses.  The first one listed is Little Four Eyes on facebook.  Because I’m trendy like that.  If you’re on facebook, please join the group, we can share pictures and stories and all a bit more informally.  I know there are a lot of other communities and groups out there.  Send me a note or comment and let me know what to add.  I haven’t had a chance to research this as much as I’m like.
• Resources for Parents / Blogs – I’ve added a couple of blogs that are specifically focused or write often about children’s vision.  Again, let me know what others I should add.  I’m also considering adding a section with blogs of parents who have kids with glasses, even though the blogs don’t specifically focus on kids with glasses.  I know that quite a few of the authors and commenters have their own blogs.  Would anyone be interested in a list like that?  If so, let me know if you have a blog you want added, I don’t want to add people’s personal blogs unless I’m given an ok.
• Call for posts & post topics (pleas?) I am working on a post-surgery post that just gives a run-through of what the whole experience was for us (basically, what I would have wanted to read before going in to this), but I don’t want this to turn into the Zoe has eye surgery blog, but on the other hand, I’m currently having trouble coming focusing on much else right now.  So, please if you have any stories to share or ideas for post topics or anything else, let me know, leave a comment, you know what to do!

(Things looked good at Zoe’s post-surgery follow-up today, our next appointment is in a couple of weeks.  She still hates the ointment, but it’s a little better.).

So tomorrow is the big surgery day.  We’ll be getting up at the crap of dawn to get to the Eye Institute by 5:30 in the morning.  Actually, “crap of dawn” might be misleading since it implies that the sun might actually be close to coming up at that point.

I’m trying to stay calm about the whole thing, and mostly being successful, but the fact that my mom and I spent the afternoon washing dishes, sweeping, vacuuming, dusting and otherwise cleaning is a pretty strong indication that I’m not so calm inside.  Because normally, I don’t do that.

I’ve been asked by a few people to give updates, and rather than clutter up the blog with multiple posts, I’m just going to add any updates at the end of this post as things go on tomorrow.  I don’t really expect to be on the computer too much, so if there’s no updates, you can assume that I’m just snuggling the girl.

Update: And we’re back home, Zoe is chowing on dry cheerios like she’s just gone hours without food (oh, right).  The surgery appears to have gone well.  Chris went with Zoe to be put under and said it was hard but not awful.  Coming out of anesthesia was really, really hard, but she seems ok now.  Her eyes are pretty bloodshot, the blood in the tears was hard to look at, but I’m glad I’d been warned, and she’s pretty sensitive to light.  We have a follow-up appointment tomorrow morning with the ophthalmologist.

Zoe's eyes 4 hours after surgery. They're definitely red, but maybe not noticeable to casual observers who aren't looking for it.

Update 2: Zoe’s down for a nap, and Chris and I both got a bit of a very needed nap as well.  She was surprisingly cheerful while she was awake, only saying “ow” and rubbing her eyes when she looked at a particularly bright wall with sunshine on it – so no walks outside today in the sun.  I kept looking at her trying to put my finger on what looked different (besides the obvious red in the corners of her eyes) and realized that her eyes are really tracking together now.  I know it’s too soon to know the outcome for sure and that some kids will need additional surgery much later in life, but I’m hopeful that she will have a good outcome.

Update 3: The eye ointment is tough.  They said it would be hard and a fight, and they were not joking.  That killed the cheerful mood, no question.  We have to do this for 10 days, 3 times a day.

I just read the wonderful story Danielle wrote in comments and it reminded me of a similar experience we had at the hospital for Teagans eye surgery.

As I’ve said, Teagan had eye surgery a week & a half ago. As I walked away from my daughter to go to the waiting room (one of the hardest moments of my life so far) I was crying and nervous; basically a big mess. No surprise there, which one of us wouldn’t be!! When we sat down I noticed a couple casually drinking coffee, joking around, and checking their email on their matching Mac’s. I’d had noticed them earlier, they had a boy about 12-14 years old. The first thought that went through my head was “how can these parents be so calm and casual while their son is in surgery? “What jerks!” Then it struck me!!!What has this family been through that has made a couple hour outpatient procedure such a non event? Painful treatments? Long hospital stays? Risky procedures? How lucky am I that a routine day surgery is such a traumatic experience!

In the end, it doesn’t make the experience my family has had to go through any easier. If I had to do it over again I will still be just as emotional when we found out Teagan needed glasses, patching or surgery. Still, it is a nice reminder that I am very lucky. My child is healthy, smart, and active. While these eye care issues have been frustrating and disappointing at times, at least they are not tragic. I guess today I’m grateful for glasses.

I’ve moved this post from the comments, because I wanted to have it on the front page for everyone to read.  I really love reading everyone’s stories about their kids and their glasses – I feel like I’ve learned so much from them, and I hope others do too.  Please keep them coming (as always ann @ shinypebble . com, or leave a comment) – you can either just have me post the story, or I can set you up as an author so you can write more blog posts whenever you’d like. – Ann Z

. . .

Mia, nearly 3 months old

Hello, my name is Danielle and I am a mother of 2, Alex 17 months and Mia 3 months old. I thought I would also share my story and maybe this will help other parents that might have questions about cataracts.
I am also new to this complex world of eye problems. My daughter was born 3 months ago, and during her routine 2 week check up the doctor noticed that she did not have a red reflex in her right eye. He told me that this could either be a cataract, or she could be blind in her right eye.

I was completely caught off guard and felt like my heart stopped beating, my husband was home with our 17 month old son so I was alone when I received this information. I remember the look in the doctors eyes when he gave me the news. I stood there crying, holding my daughter, looking into her eyes, thinking why, and how, I thought cataracts only happened when you were old, how could this be happening to my beautiful newborn daughter. Her pediatrician sat on the phone for over 30 minutes trying to get us an appointment with an ophthalmologist. After multiple attempts, he was able to get us in to see a specialist at Boston Children’s hospital. When we saw the ophthalmologist she confirmed that Mia had a unilateral congenital cataract in her right eye.

Read more…

I wanted to point everyone to this post by MotherhoodandPotatoes on her blog – she’s the mom of C (scroll down near the bottom of the gallery for C’s picture) and a frequent commenter.  She writes about having her optometrist put lenses over her eyes to simulate C’s farsighted prescription.  I love the idea of being able to see through our child’s eyes, at least a little.  I’ve often wondered what the world looks like to Zoe, whether she can see some of the details in her books when we’re reading at night after we’ve taken her glasses off.

Braden

Many moons ago, (or so it seems!) in September of 2007, I had an appointment for my son Braden to get his eyes checked. Although my pediatrician insisted that Braden’s eyes were NOT turning, my gut told me differently. I made an appointment with an eye doctor on my own. Sure enough, Braden’s eyes did intermittently turn in. Upon first hearing Braden’s diagnosis of Esotropia I was told that I could do surgery, however, it was only cosmetic, and would not correct his vision. We would begin with glasses, continue with eye exercises when he was older, and VIOLA- Problem Solved. Completely ignorant of the now all too familiar terms- strabismus, alternating Eso, High AC/A, convergence insufficiency, DVD, etc- and only a mom to a darn cute little boy with an eye turn- I was thrilled. Of course I’d want to avoid surgery at all costs.

I was on cloud 9 walking out of the door to the Optometrists, I could definitely deal with glasses and eye excercises. I was so happy that I had taken the initiative to go to the Doctor’s against my Pediatricians opinion.

Fast-Forward 2 months, and upon a visit to my pediatrician’s office, the Dr. who was seeing my son (not my pediatrician) stared intently at my son and asked what I was planning on doing about his eyes. I proudly told him that I had taken him, myself, to an Optometrist and what the Optometrist had told me, and watched his face scrunch in horror.

“I think you need to get a 2nd Opinion” he said “from an Ophthalmologist, if it was my grandson, he would have already had surgery”

I walked out of the pediatrician office jaded with doubt.

Read more…

My 6 year old daughters had a check up today and Emma failed the eye exam.  Now, I’m not really surprised at this, since I’m half blind, the man of the house was until the lucky dog had lasik surgery and of course, Sam wears glasses.  We have all that lovely family history on my side of the family, too.  But, I’ve always hoped that they would managed to avoid the bad eye genes.  Apparently, we’re batting 2 out of 3 now.  So, they will be setting up an appointment for her with the ophthomologist sometime soon.

If she does need glasses, I’m going to be saying “Well, crap” again, because that will leave just one without them, and Emma and Ellie both have been begging for months to get glasses.  So, I’ll be listening to lots of complaining from Ellie over her lack of fashionable eyewear.

Teagan - 2 1/2.

As I try to figure out how to start this I’m feeling a little like the new kids trying to join a lunch table.  Will I be interesting?  Can I be funny?  Will anyone want to talk to me?  I’m new to this blogging thing, but found it very helpful when I was preparing myself for my 2 1/2 year old’s Strabismus surgery last Friday.  It got me thinking, maybe I have some knowledge to share or at least another place to vent!

We found out that my daughter Teagan needed glasses when she was 18 months old.  I remember crying as we left the PO’s office thinking how am I going to keep these on her?  What will people think or say? and THIS IS NOT FAIR, SHE’S JUST A BABY!!  We got through it though and I actually love her glasses now.  They are so cute and so much a part of who she is.  Glasses are not the only thing we have had to deal with though.  In the last year we have done patching, bi-focals, eye drops, more patching and finally surgery.  We have no idea where the end of the road might be (I hope it does not include more patching) but we know we can handle it.

I think it will help to have another place to turn to, where people know exactally what we are going through.  I look forward to sharing our adventures and reading about everyone elses.

Thanks!  TeagansMom

There is some bit of irony in the fact that I have to let my toddler wear a relatively expensive pair of glasses so that he can see. You can bet your biscuits that I wouldn’t let him run around with anything else that cost that much all day, every day. Lately Sam has been taking his glasses off to look at them and sort of explore them and quite frankly just to play with them. I try to remind myself to just calmly tell him to put them back on, but tonight in the car, I looked back and he had the arms bent way out. I found myself screeching at him “Put those back on, they aren’t a toy!”

But the truth is, I, and all of us with little kids in glasses, pretty much have to trust that they are going to happily, or not so happily, wear these expensive glasses, leave them on their faces, not play with them, not break them, just wear them. That’s a lot to expect out of a little kid, because little kids are so curious. And, well, the glasses do belong to him. If he wants to look at them, then he has that right. But, hey kid! Put them back on your face. They aren’t a toy!

Bit of of a random train of thought post today. Teagansmom’s comment on my last post (her #11 about wanting to scream the next time someone asks how you know they needed glasses) got me thinking about those responses we always hear from people about our kids’ glasses. Yesterday, Zoe and I were at the bakery and the woman behind the counter looked at Zoe and said that her sister had worn glasses since infancy. Apparently people would always comment to her father that she was so good at keeping her glasses on. “Yeah,” her dad would say, “because she can’t see without them!”  It made me laugh, and reminded me of someone who asked Chris if Zoe’s glasses were “real.” Seriously, if someone has the time and energy and money to buy their young toddler glasses, and then convince them to wear the glasses, when the glasses don’t provide any benefit at all?  Yeah.  Those people need to donate some of that time, energy and money to me.