Pediatric Ophthalmologist Appointment #3

Today was Elli's 3rd appointment with Dr. Archer, the pediatric ophthalmologist in Ann Arbor. Many of you have noticed that Elli's eyes have started turning inward to an extreme degree, but not at the same time. Sometimes, she's looking with her right eye and her left eye turns inward, and other times, she's looking with her left eye and the right eye turns inward. This is referred to as an "intermittent esotropia" and is a type of strabismus. When this occurs, she is not using her eyes together for vision, which is, of course, not the ideal situation.

Dr. Archer said that, while much of aniridia cannot be corrected, this particular condition can be corrected with surgery. He said that they move the inner eye muscles, which generally allows the eyes to begin functioning together. He recommended that the surgery be done sooner rather than later, because the sooner the brain learns to use the eyes together, the better.

As such, her surgery is scheduled for Monday, March 2. He said that 80% of the time, this corrects the alignment. However, in 20% of cases, the alignment isn't completely corrected with the first surgery, and an additional surgery may be required to get it exactly right. This is apparently an outpatient procedure, so she will come home with us again that night. The only post-op treatment we will have to do is eye drops a couple of times a day for a week, which is less than I expected.

They also noticed today that her ability to track items is stronger with her right eye than with her left, and that her vision is apparently stronger in general with her right eye than it is with her left. This was not news to me, since our vision consultant, April, had already determined that a few weeks ago. It sounds like patching the right eye may be in our future to ensure that the left eye develops appropriately and doesn't develop amblyopia. However, it doesn't sound like that will happen until the esotropia is fixed.

Doug asked me when we left the doctor's office how I feel about her having surgery. I realized that I'm quite calm about it - at the moment. I'm not sure how I'll feel that morning, as they whisk her away to put her under for surgery, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. :-) I'm thankful that surgery is available, and I'm thankful that she's in the hands of a very good doctor at a very good facility. I'm even more thankful that she's in the hands of a great God, who loves her more than I ever could, and to whom this is no surprise.

We would covet your prayers for us on March 2 - that God would guide Dr. Archer's hands, that all will go well and no complications would arise, that Elli will handle the anaesthetic with no problems, that recovery would go smoothly, and that this one surgery would correct the esotropia in full, without requiring any follow up surgery for this condition. I'll post another update here once her surgery is complete.