On January 12th, Braelyn woke up and I immediately noticed that something was going on with her right eye. It was crossed towards her nose. I was like doooowhhhat? It totally blew my mind because never had her eye ever been the least bit crossed. She had a head cold so I thought maybe the sinus pressure was bothering her eye. By the time we got to Weezie's house her eye was back to normal. I did ask Weezie to keep watch out though. I seriously thought I was crazy because it was there and then it was gone. When I got to Weezies, she said she hadn't really noticed anything. Sara was there too and she hadn't either. I was relieved but still wondering why it had been crossed that morning. The rest of the afternoon and night her eye was perfectly aligned.
The next morning when Braelyn woke up it was crossed again. I took a picture and texted it to Sara to get confirmation that it was indeed crossed. She agreed. When we got to Weezie's her eye was still crossed and continued to be crossed on and off. Around mid morning, I made an appointment with our pediatrician's office. I was freaked out and wondering what in the world it could be.
Mike met us at the doctor's office at 2:50pm. Her eye was still really crossed. We met with Dr. Colvin and he said it was Strabismus. This pretty much explains what Strabismus is:
"Six eye muscles that are attached to the outside of each eye are responsible to control eye movement. These six muscles are known as the extraocular muscles. One muscle is responsible is move the eye to the right, one muscle is responsible to move the eye to the left and the remaining four muscles are responsible for vertical, horizontal and angular movement. With proper binocular vision, both eyes are able to work together to focus on an object. The brain is responsible to ensure that all of the muscles in a single eye are balanced to work together and that both eyes are coordinated to move together. Strabismus is lack of such balance and coordination. Strabismus may be caused by either a brain disorder where the brain has trouble coordinating the eyes or a muscle disorder where the direction or power of one or more eye muscles fails to properly function"
Dr. Colvin recommended us go to a Pediatric Ophthalmologist (PO). I immediately made an appointment with Emory Eye Clinic. We had to wait two weeks to go to Emory. I started keeping a journal of Braelyn's Eye because the pattern or lack there of was crazy. Some days her eye was perfectly aligned. Other days her eye was on/off crossed all day until around 5pm when suddenly it would get better and stay better until bed time. I was really worried about her vision and we all were counting down until her appointment at Emory.
This past Friday, January 28th, Mike, Brae, and I headed to Emory. We barely made our appointment due to horrible traffic south of ATL. It was very stressful and I was a bit frazzled by the time we got there. Thankfully Braelyn slept the entire 2 hour trip to Emory. We met with Braelyn's doctor who performed a lot of test. Brae was SO good! She didn't resist at all even when they dilated her eyes. A lot of the test had to do with flashing lights and getting her to move her right eye and them looking into her eye and such. The doctor who just so happens to share our last name was very nice and we had a great experience at Emory. Dr. Lenhart told us that Braelyn did have Strabismus. She was a little thrown off that we said her eye gets better and worse and better and worse. Brae was having a lot of crossing for most the day that day so Dr. Lenhart didn't get to see her binocular (normal) vision. This was a good thing and a bad thing in my opinion. A good thing because she could see and diagnose her eye, but bad because Brae does have binocular vision quite a lot and the doctor did not get to see that. Frustrating. Dr. Lenhart thought Brae's condition could be Cyclic Esotropia which is very rare. So rare that she has never seen it. After some research Braelyn's case sounds similar to Cyclic Esotropia, but I am not sure...in my "doctor mom" opinion it could be something called Intermittent Strabismus. The great news is her vision is fine and the nerve in her eye is good and strong. Dr. Lenhart wanted us to start patching Brae's good (left) eye for 2 to 3 hours a day and we would follow up with her in 2 months. She also wanted us to take pictures and keep a log on her binocular vision/strabismus because it switches back and forth so much.
We started patching Saturday morning. Dr. Lenhart sent us home with a few patches and they were so cute. Brae did great with patching and Mike and I were so impressed. We really expected it to be a struggle. After patching she had about an hour of strabitmus and then the rest of the day she had binocular vision.
So this is where we are at.....For sure not the worse case scenario, but it sucks. I wish my baby didn't have to go through this. I know her precious life is the the best hands though and that gives me a sense of peace. God is in control and I would not have it any other way. I am thankful for his timing because Brae is the age where she doesn't know what is going on and is not self-conscious of her eye or her patch. I am so grateful for this. Also at 2 it is easier to correct. We are really optimistic that the patching will force her right eye muscles to get stronger. If it doesn't then we may face vision therapy or surgery. Our follow-up appointment is on April 6th....let the countdown begin....
Now I bet you are thinking....what does Strabismus look like and what in the world does she mean when she says Brae's eye changes back and forth from Strabismus to Binocular vision.
This first picture was taken yesterday around 5:30pm.....My best girl and I were taking pictures of each other. (you can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them)
This second picture was taken yesterday at 6:30pm.
And just for good measure....she wanted her Daddy to smile for a picture, even though she gave me a stink face in the above picture. HA! =) She was saying, "Cheese Daddy, Cheese".
Oh and I almost forgot, here is Brae with her cute eye patch! Goodness, how I love this girl!
No comments:
Post a Comment