Babies With Glasses - The site for families of babies, infants and kids with glasses

firstly, sorry I posted in tips and tricks (my mistake, definately a forum discussion)

Hi Ann,

I saw pictures of your gorgeous little girl on the little four eyes blog! After reading your update and 'sadiesmom' reply I have started preparing myself for the liklihood of Mia needing surgery. My husband read through your replies too, thankyou for all your information and sharing your experiences!

I have been thinking about several of my friends kids who have had surgery to have grommits put in. They have all come out of it well and been so much healthier in the long term. I also remind myself how lucky we are that our girls can be treated. My best friend had eye surgery (one eye was leading out all the time) when she was 5 and her eye has been perfect ever since.

Ann, you are so normal - being scared, sad and worried. As a mum you have full control of what happens to your kids but, when they go in for surgery you have to let others take charge. Your most precious thing in life is in such a delicate situation without you! The experts will be just that, we have to trust them and put on a brave face for our girls.

I attached the picture that I emailed to our ophthalmologist. She replied bringing our appointment forward. Mia's eyes are like this more than ever, even when she's bright eyed and bushy tailed. It used to be only when she was tired (with and without glasses).

Ann - Very best of luck with the surgery I hope it is a huge success!
I'll let you know the verdict after our revisit on Wed

sadiesmom - thankyou so much, I learnt so much from your reply!

Megan Inge

Thank you Megan, for the kind words, that was exactly what I needed to hear. I think you're right on about trusting the experts and being brave for our girls. I know that Zoe picks up on my emotions pretty quickly, so I'll be doing my best to stay calm and happy in the time leading up to the surgery.

I don't see the picture that you attached, but I looked at your inconSPECuous website. Is that Mia in the pictures? She's beautiful.

It sounds like we're going through very similar things at the same time. Zoe's eyes just kept getting worse with the crossing until we got a higher prescription, and even with the new lenses, they weren't getting better. I kept trying to convince myself that they were getting straighter, but when I look back at the pictures, it's clear they weren't. I'm glad we got in and had the check up. I'll watch for your update on Wednesday, I hope it goes well.

By the way, I saw your comment on my blog, and I've added a link to inconSPECuous from the collected wisdom page.

Best,
Ann

she will do great with the surgery. sadie came out of surgery with her eyes closed, of course. you could tell they were slightly swollen. once the nurse gave her some pain medication she went straight to sleep. beleve it or not on the car ride home she opened her swollen red eyes and smiled at me. that's when i knew everything was going to be o.k. we gave her tylenol for the first 24 hours after that she needed nothing!!! the eye drops were the hardest thing. it was more like an ointment than a drop and i never could make myself fell like i had gotten enough in her eye. she had her surgery on a monday and by that thursday you could not even tell she had anything done. the whole surgery took about an hour for both eyes. right after surgery her eyes looked so straight even without the glasses for the first couple of days. then they gradually started to turn in more without the glasses. the dr said that was normal. her eyes are still perfectly straight with the glasses on, since the surgery and it has been 4 months. keep me informed. if you have anymore questions please ask. i did not find this website until way after her surgery, i wish i would have found it sooner.

Hi Sadiesmom (and Ann),

Thanks for your replies! It means so much to have people like you and Ann Z who share your experiences and offer advice! I really think the ophthalmologists are a bit too busy to offer the parents all the information they need. If only all the parents in our predicacment knew about this site. I must put a link to this forum on my website!

I have arranged a second opinion for Mia's eyes. She hasn't yet tried out her new prescription because they are still being made. Since we paid in excess of $200 Aus dollars for the higher prescription lenses her eyes seem to have straightened significantly - I mean - from one eye (or the other) being crossed almost all day to it being more like 10% of the day. Like I said in the original post - her eyes are like a roller coaster. As soon as I think I've sorted the future options things change!

OTHER DIFFICULTIES:- PEOPLE WHO CARE: Even though my older brother loves his neice dearly he has a weak stomach and finds it difficult to look at Mia when her eyes aren't straight. He expects issues like this to be fixed after one visit to the doctor. I find it difficult to explain that it's not that simple/easy. HE IS NOT A PARENT.

The second opinion is this Thursday, I'll update again then.

One question, not answered on prevent blindness america forum.... can you (or anyone) offer a reason why Mia's prescription is increased from +2.5 to +4 when her vision tests are excellent. Only symptom is persistent crossing of the eye(s)with glasses- mostly right eye but, 10% alternates with left.

Thanks again,

Megan Inge
www.inconspecuous.com.au

(is anyone else having trouble posting responses? I keep getting errors about flood settings? grrr)

Thank you Sadiesmom! It's so reassuring to read about your experiences. I actually do have a lot of questions, if you don't mind:

*Did Sadie's prescription change after the surgery? Did she wear her glasses right away after surgery - I mean like the next day, not necessarily the same day, or did you wait for the follow up?

*Did you have to try to keep her from rubbing her eyes? It seems like it would be hard to keep her from touching her eyes.

*Do you know how her ophthalmologist knew how much to adjust the muscles? I'm a little worried because it seems like Zoe is crossing her eyes less. She's still crossing them, for sure, but they seem a little straighter to me and I'm worried that if her doctor does the surgery based on her appointment a week and a half ago, she'll over correct. I guess I should call her doctor about that.

Megan, I totally hear you on the roller coaster feeling of all of this. I'm now worried about Zoe's eyes being straighter in the last week. I have no idea what that means for the surgery, they're still crossing, but not quite as much (I think), and I don't want them over corrected. But then I worry that it's all just wishful thinking on my part.

My dad also expected the glasses to just cure Zoe of her crossed eyes immediately. He kind of freaked out when we took her glasses off and her eyes crossed again. I don't think he realized that she would need glasses long term. It was almost funny - if she didn't cross her eyes without glasses, then we wouldn't be spending all this money on them!

Here's my best attempt at explaining the increased prescription, even though she is testing well on the vision tests. Mia is crossing her eyes in order to compensate for being farsighted. That means that when her eyes are crossed, she can see close up. So the tests showing that she has good eyesight up close means that her accommodation is working to compensate for her farsightedness. The hope is that by increasing her prescription, she will not need to cross her eyes in order to focus.

I'm looking forward to hearing the update after your next appointment.

Hi Ann,

I had a second opinion on Mia's eyes on 8/8/08. The behavioural optometrist came up with the same advice - increase her prescription because the right eye still has a tendency to turn in and surgery to follow if no improvement. The optom gave reasoning similar to yours, thankyou for your insight!

We got Mia's 4+ glasses the day after seeing the optom. She's been in them for less than 48 hours but, so far there is no improvement in her eye turning. If anything, it may seem slightly worse. I find it very confusing.

Thankyou for putting a link to my website in your collected wisdom section of your blog. My stats show a few visits from that link! I love your blog and think it will help heaps of parents in shoes similar to ours so I have put a link on my website.

I hope your ophthalmologist is able to reassure you about Zoe's surgery... you should stay in touch with your concerns. I'm sure that any good paediatric doc would be used uncertain parents. I think I'll trust my doc more now, since the second opinion!

All the best,

Megan Inge
www.inconspecuous.com.au