Thursday, July 30, 2009

The Eye Surgeries (and more) Updates

Wow.

It just occured to me that it has been six months since Landon had the surgery to remove the cataract in his right eye and have the implant put in. I don't think I'm ever going to get over how fast time passes by.

We had a follow-up appointment last week. All of the follow-ups have been going well. His eye healed just fine; at each appointment the amount of time to patch his left eye was decreased; and so far, the cataract in the left eye continues to remain unobtrusive.

This appointment was no different. The opthamologist was VERY impressed with how his vision has recovered. If you remember, the cataract completely obstructed his vision. I think light was getting in, but that was about all. And I know for sure that he had the cataract from about July 2008 (I was able to confidently identify it in pictures back that far), until his surgery on January 28, 2009.

Because his vision has recovered so well, the doc believes that he wasn't born with the cataract, or, at least that it wasn't completely obstructing his vision from birth. When his left eye is patched, he does the same things as when it isn't (at least until he figures out how to pull the patch off!). The doc estimates that he has good vision in both eyes and doesn't need glasses for the time being. Initially, we thought he would be in glasses shortly after the surgery, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I am glad for that.

It was tough when McKayla got her first pair of glasses at 10 months of age. Landon will fling anything off his head that you put on it...hats, sunglasses...so I can only imagine what would happen with the glasses.

And little Landon wasn't the only one who had eye surgery in January. The week prior to his, McKayla had surgery to correct the strabismus (aka eye alignment).

She recovered very quickly, with little, if no, discomfort. She still requires glasses as she is still farsighted, plus, the glasses still help correct the eye alignment. I do notice that her eyes aren't pointing in the same direction without her glasses, but the doc isn't concerned as long as it is corrected with glasses. I'm not sure if more surgeries are in her future or not. I do know that she is one clumsy little girl without her glasses.

I think it has only been a few months since we got her new glasses, but I'm ready to chuck these and get a new pair. The frames are much thinner than the ones she had previously so they bend much easier. Once bent, the lenses pop out. It is pretty much a daily aggravation.

Still, I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that time of our lives is behind us now.

From November when we first found out about the cataract; to Landon getting RSV which turned into and spending two weeks in the hospital only to come home on oxygen in order to keep his O2 saturation at an acceptible level; to keeping him healthy enough to have the surgery, to now - vision restored, lungs fully recovered no longer require oxygen. Phew.

And, I'm tremendously grateful that was the worst we had to contend with.

Overall, I believe that we have been very lucky health-wise considering the havoc an extra chromosome can wreak on a body. Landon only had three small holes in his heart when he was born, and at last check, two had closed. I think his breathing problems and low O2 sats were contributed to the smaller airways common to little ones with Down syndrome, as well as atelecstasis caused by the ravaging RSV.

Now that Landon has one-on-one attention during the day, his development has really taken off, both physically and cognitively. He is learning signs so quickly and amazes us each day with something new he has picked up or figured out for himself.

I just about explode with excitement and pride. Have I said lately how much I love this little guy?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I could just eat him in that picture- he is so darn cute!!!! That is so great that six months have passed and they are both doing much better. Yay!!!

Beth said...

Glad the eyes are improving all around! It sounds like Landon's making leaps and bounds! yay!