The Big Ol' Post on Strabismus

Yes, it has been a while since I’ve updated this.

Part of it is that life has been pretty busy. Okay, more than pretty busy. Call it crazy busy.

But a good portion of it is that I wanted to have a “happy ending” before I wrote this particular blog post. Now that I’ve got it, I’ve got no excuses. A bit of setup is needed, though.

When parents plan to have a kid, I think they all go through the list of wants and don’t wants for their child. Once Lily was born, we counted fingers (10) and toes (10). We made sure she could breathe (check), and hear (check), and see (check…more or less).

All babies have a bit of a cross-eyed look to them when they are first born. After all, they’re learning how to use their eyes. It is very easy to get used to that look and to ignore an issue with the way the eyes are working.

 

Very easy to ignore at age 1, especially when she's this cute.

It is difficult to admit that there’s something not working right with your kid, especially when that something may require surgery.

Hindsight is 20/20, and now I look back at the old photos and can very clearly see where Lily’s eyes weren’t quite aligned correctly. It really became obvious in some pictures from our cruise last May, but because it wasn’t in *every* photo, it was easy to dismiss. Lily also wasn’t reading, which is unusual since both her daddy and I read before age 3. Lily also didn’t climb much, which was a huge blessing as I didn’t have to worry about her getting into trouble when I wasn’t looking, but it also was a little odd. Each of those is easy to dismiss, though.

 

Pretty easy to see in hindsight--even in May 2012.

By the time we took another trip to Walt Disney World in December 2012, the photos told the story—something was wrong with her eye alignment.

Feeling rather silly (after all, what if I’m just being hypercritical), I made an appointment to Lily’s GP. The doctor walked in, said “Oh, she’s got strabismus”, and wrote a referral—no exam needed to get that referral.

Within a week, we were at a specialist in Columbia. I had done a decent amount of searching online, so I knew more or less what was to be expected. Glasses were a must, eyepatching was a maybe, and there was a remote chance that surgery would be required.

We started off with over-the-counter reading glasses, as Lily was pretty significantly farsighted. From there, we added prisms to the glasses, as her alignment was off by almost 45 degrees. Every two weeks we were back at the specialist, making adjustments and improving her eyesight. At one meeting, the doctor showed what we would need to do glasses-wise to make Lily’s vision correct. The glasses would be almost 2 inches thick. Needless to say, that wasn’t an option. Lily was going to need surgery.

Over-the-counter reading glasses may be a little big, but she's still stylin' them!

As an adult, I know what the risks are with surgery, but what do you do with a two-year-old who doesn’t even know what that word means? Finally we just said that she was going to go to a hospital where she’d take a special nap and then she would wake up with her eyes being fixed. She was okay with that explanation.

 

A close-up of a photo taken the Thursday before her surgery. When she was wearing glasses, it was easy to second-guess whether the surgery was necessary. When the glasses were off, there was no question whatsoever.

President’s Day weekend, off to the hospital we went. Watching her get all dressed up in her hospital gown was cute, and it was somewhat amusing watching her get a bit loopy from the sedative. As she needed to be carried, her daddy had the unenviable responsibility to take her into the OR and be with her when they put her under. After that, the longest hour wait in my life.

 

Pre-surgery--no question about the necessity from this picture.

Adults often have challenges coming out of anesthesia, but for children, it is a lot worse because they don’t really understand what’s happening. Because Lily was thrashing so much around and hysterical as she came out, the nurses asked if we were comfortable taking her home. We said we were, and home she went. Aside from the blood-red color of the whites of her eyes, once she woke up from a nap on the way home and on the couch after we got home, you wouldn’t know anything had happened.

 

The day after

Two weeks after.

One month after.

The good news is that, many months later, the surgery seems to have held. Of course we’ll be watching it for the next several years for any changes. She’s still farsighted, but her vision is better on that than before the surgery. There’s some possibility that she’ll eventually have her eyes get strong enough she won’t be farsighted. In the meantime, she’s got cute glasses to wear—and she loves wearing her glasses.

This weekend, I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. I went through a lot of options for professions she’s seen or had contact with (a teacher, a firefighter, a baker, and so on). She said kept saying no until we got to “eye doctor”. At that point she gave an enthusiastic YES and told me that when she is a big girl, she wants to make people’s eyes better and give them glasses.

Everything for a reason, eh?

First day with new glasses!

And continuing to love those glasses a month later.