the eyes have it

This morning Rhys finally made it in for his checkup with his opthamologist. His original appointment was a few weeks ago but it conflicted with PT and we had to reschedule. Cody expected to be "ripped to shreds" by the doctor (she really is brilliant and has no problem telling you like it is) because Rhys hasn't been wearing his glasses lately, but that wasn't the case. Rhys did have ROP in the NICU, however his case was not severe enough to require corrective surgery and it resolved on its own.

Initially we brought Rhys in to get his eyes checked as a follow-up to the NICU exams, but also because he had a slightly lazy left eye. During the first post-NICU exam it was also discovered Rhys was farsighted. The glasses were prescribed in hopes of strengthening the lazy eye and correcting the farsightedness. For anyone who has tried to keep glasses on an infant, it is nearly impossible. We did the best we could, but it was a never-ending battle. At his last appointment we were told it looked as though Rhys's lazy eye has learned to focus properly and he might be able to lose the glasses soon. They gave us a pair of elbow guards to keep Rhys from grabbing his glasses, however that goes against our efforts with Rhys's PT.

Today Cody mentioned that to the doctor. She told him Rhys's eyes look great in the front and back (I guess that means everything is attached properly as it should be - remember ROP is where the retina detaches and causes blindness), his lazy eye is no more and his farsightedness has improved from a 2 to 1.5 (in terms of prescription strength). Way back in the beginning the doctor told us a lot of times if they diagnose farsightedness this early and it is treated correctly the condition can resolve to where glasses are no longer needed. In this case it has proven true for Rhys as its severity has decreased a bit in only a few months.

Ideally Rhys needs the glasses to continue the attempt at correcting his farsightedness, however the doctor agrees Rhys's PT is much more important right now and has therefore discontinued his glasses. And, she doesn't need to see him back for another two years. I am hoping that we can make enough progress with Rhys's PT in the next year to hopefully get him back to the doctor so we can address his eyes again before then. In terms of a vision impairment Rhys's isn't very great and it doesn't seem to cause him problems seeing things. But if there is a possibility of giving him better vision I'd like to try!

Because Rhys's eyes are so light in color it requires two rounds of drops to dilate his eyes. He absolutely hates this like nothing else I've seen. This time Rhys seemed to be a little disturbed when he got home. If you've never had your eyes dilated your vision is very blurry and the sensitivity to light is crazy painful if you're not careful. He is several months older and much more capable/aware than his last visit so I think he was bothered by not being able to see things. His eyes were still a little dilated this afternoon but he acted as though he was able to see okay and was watching tv and playing with toys as he normally does.