Strabismus

Lauren has been seen by a pediatric optometrist since birth. One of the best I might add and the same doctor that saw her in the NICU. When we thought she would need glasses by a year old due to ROP and her brain hemorhaging (and she didn't), the first words out of his mouth were, "Isn't God good." I knew right then that we were where we should be. 

Lauren has been seen every 6 months to follow her strabismus. Strabismus is when your eyes don't line up in the same direction and because of this they don't look at the same object at the same time (or more commonly known as "crossed eyes"). Lauren does "correct" it some on her own by putting her chin down when she needs to focus on something. This is usually how she watches television. 

Her strabismus really hadn't changed much, and her doctor said if it continued how it was, he wouldn't do anything to correct it. It really wasn't too bad and could only be seen by a professional. Over the past few months I thought it was getting worse, but thought maybe it was just me. I have a way of being a little über cray cray when it comes to my kids health. I have self diagnosed them with all sorts of crazy things over the years. 

Anyways, I digress. A few weeks ago I was sitting at the table and Kristen was standing behind me and Lauren came in to ask a question. That's when I knew it was worse. I didn't know if she was asking me the question or Kristen. In fact, it didn't really look like she was talking to either of us. That's when I mentioned it to Paul and he said he could tell. I knew this possibly meant she would need surgery.

Both Paul and I agree that it should be done sooner rather than later. It will only get worse and would eventually affect her vision. It will be an outpatient procedure and the doctor will go in and weaken the muscles in both eyes to try to even things out. There is a possibility that she would need another surgery to tweak it, but more than likely she won't. She will be given anesthesia, which is best because she would do none of this willingly....but that is the part that scares me the most. There are just so many horror stories and Lauren is still very tiny for her age. All sorts of bad scenarios have run through my mind and since her surgery isn't scheduled until June 24th, I am sure I will have 100 more horrible scenarios added to the already growing list. 

Just thinking about this gives me anxiety. What's that saying? No one can pray and worry at the same time....