Today was Elli's 2nd appointment with Dr. Archer, her pediatric ophthalmologist. (For those that are new to my blog or just need a refresher on her eye condition, see my earlier posts here and here. She did a great job of tolerating all the lights that they shined in her eyes, although she wasn't so thrilled when it was time for a nap and the doctor kept prying open her eyes to look into them anyway. (I'm guessing I wouldn't have been thrilled either!)
The doctor said that she is considerably less near-sighted than they thought she was at the last appointment. At her 2 month appointment, he had her written down as a -8; by comparison, I am a -3 in one eye and a -2.25 in the other. He said if it was still that way, he would have wanted to get her into glasses now. However, he said she is now close to normal - close enough that she definitely doesn't need glasses at this time. We are not sure if he just couldn't get a good look the last time, or if God just answered prayer and allowed her eyes to change, but regardless of the why or how, we're thankful for the answer to prayer!
We have been noticing for awhile that, when Elli wants to get a good look at something, she tilts her chin up and looks out the bottom of her eyes. This was very clear during her doctor's appointment as she followed the flashing lights that doctor waved in front of her face. (She just loves flashing lights!) According to Dr. Archer, this is very normal for people with a nystagmus - apparently there is often one position where they can see the best, and they tend to find it very early in life and default to it when they want a good look at something. This default position is called the "null position." He said that, while nothing can be done about the nystagmus itself, surgery can correct the null position so that she looks straight in front of her (like those with normal vision would). He said we may want to consider that surgery down the road, although it does not make sense to do that yet, since an infant's eyes are still changing. We are again thankful that the null position can be corrected - we imagine that will make it easier on her neck and the associated areas, not to mention that it will be easier socially when she gets to school.
Overall, he said that everything else looked about the same, which is fabulous. He said the optic nerve looked good, there was no sign of glaucoma, etc. So, we are very thankful for a good report!
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2 comments:
Hooray for the clean report! My prayers with you for no further complications. Genetic diseases cause weird undefined guilt in some people which is unfair. Did I tell you that my ten year old nephew was diagnosed with Becker's muscular dystrophy last year. It has to be latent in BOTH parents, so both really ate themselves up over it. I hope you and Doug aren't doing that. Anyway, much love to you and your famdamily.
Hi Doug and Janelle,
That is great news! Thanks so much for keeping us all in the loop with this blog. I know a lot more people read it than post comments, just know that we all love you. All we can say is that Elli couldn't have better parents to be there for her through all of this. We're excited to see what God does with her life and your lives, and we are looking forward to Elli growing up with our kids :-)
Love ya,
John & Sally
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