Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Update on B's vision

Brinson saw Dr. Coats yesterday for a 3 month checkup. We got good news and some surprisingly bad news also. The good news is that her vision has improved a bit since her last visit. The bad news is that she's legally blind in her left eye. Now, while Ned and I knew she had the amblyopia, neither of us knew just how bad her vision was. We knew she had bad vision, but were under the impression that it was corrected somewhat with glasses. They said it's obviously from the prematurity, her retina just didn't develop properly in that eye. Her CORRECTED vision (with glasses) is 20/40 in her right eye and 5/300 in her left. I was trying so hard to not cry in the doc office. When they tell you "if her vision doesn't worsen she might be able to drive a car when she's older" and "they have an eye clinic where they can help her with eye exercises" and "she can have a form from the state for when she goes to school to have her sit in the front of the classroom, have large print books, and possibly a tutor to help her learn" that was a lot to digest.
We are going back to patching her eye daily. We are starting off at 2 hrs/day and working our way up to 6hrs/day. She did really well today with 3 hrs. This may or may not help her bad eye, but it's the only thing we can do at this point. She's a real trooper and understands why we have to do it. So far she likes playing "pirate" with Mommy.
She goes back to the doc in October for another assessment. And we won't know for sure where her vision stabilizes until she reaches puberty. All we can hope for is that it gets better and doesn't worsen (which is also a possibility).
Send your prayers this way please.