Yesterday we went to the hospital for the next round of eye appointments. We arrived a bit early and still ended up waiting for 45 minutes. I had to give her a feed again, this time I sat in the other waiting room as it was quite empty. Our waiting room was full of children (obviously a special paediatric day) and there was a naughty 4 year old boy who was slapping his mum around the face and all sorts, climbing on the seats next to people, hiding under tables and shouting 'No' when she asked him (oh so nicely) to come out ( I think we both thought he needed a bit more of a firm hand) so anyway I didn't fancy feeding in there and this little boy perhaps showing a bit too much interest in my boobs! On the opposite side of the scale there was a little girl and her father sitting so politely, wearing her pretty pink dress, tights and pink satin shoes, reading a book to her father about the same age as this little boy. I know which one I hope Gwen turns out like, although there's a little bit of crazy in all of us I guess!
So our first appointment was with a optometrist, a nice smily lady and she did some vision tests showing Gwen pictures, and she seemed to look at the them correctly and follow them when she moved them. She commented that her vision seems ok, and she's definitely taking it all in but obviously we needed the next optician appointment to really know. She also tried to get her to look out to the sides, but to no avail. She did mention duanes (referring to the fact that the others had put it in her notes) She said she couldn't really be sure of that as Gwens eye (shape) didn't show some of those signs. (Duanes childrens eyes can retract back into their sockets when they turn inward I beleive making one eye appear smaller than the other - don't quote me though!) I mentioned to her that in earlier videos her eyes dart around all over the place. She seemed interested in that and added to her notes, suggesting to me that duanes would be present right from birth. Oh and she also put drops in her eyes to dilate her pupils.
So onto the next appointment, again quite an animated chap as the optician, he held little tiny lenses infront of her eyes, they were so tiny and the way held two lenses between his first two fingers was like a mini pair of specs, she looked so cute trying to look through them. He said she had a prescription (meaning her vision was slightly impaired I guess) he said they don't normally offer children glasses at such a young age as their eyes are still growing and developing and that it would probably be different in a few months time. However in Gwens case he said it might be useful at this stage not so much for vision but to help turn her eyes out more. He said he have quick chat with next doctor as they might not concur with this.
So onto out last appointment, this was with a smart posh-ish doctor chap, (very different from the last guy we saw), I had much more faith in him. He asked Chris lots of questions about his previous eye surgery, he asked if it was 'Miss Sleep' who did it, but as Chris didn't know it didn't matter. He checked in her eyes, she kept looking down so I had to go behind him to try to get her to look up. (not terribly successfully) If I had sung to her somewhere over the rainbow she probably would have looked at me, it seems to have an instant effect at home. But I was a bit embarrassed to start singing behind this doctors ear. (Isn't that silly of me I should have just blasted his ear drums!) So he also trued to get her look outwards, covering one eyes, she doesn't like the right being covered much and wriggles away from it. He didn't say much and then said 'I'd like to go and talk to our consultant, so um...'pause'.... (he couldn't find the words to say).......um yes if you could wait here. This made me think uh oh, what has he seen, I'm guessing the plan wasn't to get the consultant originally. After a short wait, he came back with miss Sleep (the surgeon/consultant) She spun Gwen around and watched her eyes react when she stopped. She said 'I can see some movement there,' to her colleague and then she proceeded to fill me with hope. She talked (very eloquently and professionally I may add!) about congenital esotropia, a disorder which comes on from birth or in first 6 months, it shows as the eyes turning inwards, (outwards is 'exotropia'), The children use each eye separately to see but still use both. She felt it was this rather than duanes (she said it was her guts feeling but couldn't rule out duanes), She felt Gwens eyes wouldn't benefit from glasses, if glasses would help to straighten them then they would leave any surgical intervention til they were 4/5 as they eyes were easier to work on. In Gwens instance she felt that an earlier surgery may be necessary, around the age of 1year. This would help to straighten the eyes and then giving her the best chance to use both her eyes together. She said that she would be monitored carefully over next few months to check she doesn't stop using her left eye (the weaker eye), and if she does then the surgery would go on hold and they would start to try to correct the balance by patching etc... as that would give the surgery the best result.
I felt quite relieved that she may indeed regain full vision and be able to turn her eyes out.
I did bring up duanes specifically telling her that the 2 previous people had mentioned it, she apologised and said that she didn't feel it was this (as previously mentioned) but also said that in the cases she'd seen, the eyes stopped 'dead in the centre when looking across and Gwens do have a smidgen of movement past centre.
So all in all, I feel a lot of relief at the moment.
Gwen was absolutely brilliant through it all, from being woken up by the first lady and then giving her a beaming smile, to smiling at all the doctors. They commented on how lovely it was to see.
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