Wednesday, May 29, 2013

exotropia

At the end of January I started to notice that one of Lily's eyes would drift outward when she was daydreaming or thinking about Rapunzel.  It happened a lot when we were traveling in the car.  I asked her pediatrician about it and he did a simple eye test.  He noticed the drifting when he tested her and referred us to a pediatric eye specialist.  At the end of April, Lily had her appointment with the specialist at the Riverton Primary Children's clinic.  She loved playing in the waiting room with dad.  
After a few tests she was diagnosed with intermittent exotropia.  This means sometimes, not all the time, her left eye drifts to the outer corner.  This can cause double vision.  Usually there is a weak muscle, that can get weaker and can even lead to blindness with time as the brain trains itself to block out that weak eye.  Apparently it is fairly common for eye weaknesses to show up around the age of two.  
The good news is that for now Lily doesn't need surgery or glasses.  The doctor asked us to begin patching her stronger right eye in order to make her weaker left eye work harder.  
We are supposed to do the once a day for an hour.  After a few months she will be checked again to see if the patching is helping.  Obviously she doesn't enjoy it.  

I thought eventually she would realize this is an every day occurence no matter how much she protests, but she still fights it.  In the beginning she would just whimper as I put it on.  I started bribing her with outings, gum, and treats which all worked for awhile.  However, now she makes sure before every outing that there will be "no bandaid" and she doesn't care for gum anymore.  Some days we end up chasing her around the house and pinning her arms to her side as she screams, "no bandaid."  Hopefully it will all be for her good.  Bodies are sure wonderful, but terribly imperfect.  Oh how we have learned that lesson this year.
 Wes tries to make bandaid time fun and one day even patched himself to help her feel better.  
I think Halle secretly delights in the fact that Lily has to do something that she doesn't.  And one day I walked past Lily's picture to find this.  
It was Halle.  She thinks she is hilarious.

2 comments:

Megan said...

Poor Lily. I can only imagine what it's like trying to get that patch on and keep it on a 2 year old every day. What an awesome daddy Wes is to show some solidarity with the eye patch. Maybe one day Lily will learn about pirates and think that it was cool that she got to wear an eye patch at one point in her life. :)

Also, the last picture had me dying. So funny!

Kaesha Fry said...

My niece has the same thing. She was diagnosed around 3 years old and wore a patch for a while. She wears glasses now and her eye is getting stronger. She is adorable and so is your little girl! We will all have perfect bodies some day, until then we can dress them up with cute patches and stylish glasses :)