Dylie's eye appointment

Dylan's feeling MUCH better today! She just kind of has an oogy nose but we held off on the middle of the night Motrin and this morning she really seems fine!

Dylan and I headed up to Primary again to see Dr. Larson, the eye doctor. As a reminder, last time we saw him, about 6 months ago, he told us that she probably needed glasses. At the time he said it would be more a precautionary thing, and it was optional, but it was possible that soon enough it would no longer be an option. We opted for no glasses. Honestly... I just didn't really want to deal with them, they are expensive, her head is smaller than most, developmentally she would have a hard time being convinced to keep them on etc. etc. etc. All good excuses I thought!

I was dreading today's appointment...

So we go and Linda, Dylan's Vision Therapist, met us up there. She had a few questions that she wanted to ask Dr. Larson. When he came in he said "Now last time we had talked about glasses... ..." I reminded him that he gave me the option and he laughed, apparently he had forgotten to write that 'option' part down! Dylan was FAR more cooperative during the exam than she ever has been before. She looked at the silly barking dog up on the wall, and at the TV when he turned it on. Before she wouldn't have anything to do with those silly eye doctor tricks. Because she could do that he was able to look at her eyes without having to dilate them. (Yay!)

He looked at me and said "Her eyes are getting better." What? YES! He said there's definitely an improvement over last time! She has some skin kind of covering part of her eye on one side, it's not terribly apparent but he thinks that makes it look like that eye goes inward sometimes when really it's okay. Woot woot!

They tried another test to see if she looks at contrast, basically there's black and white stripes in a box on a long board and they put it up and see if she looks at the box. Then, on subsequent boards, the lines get thinner and thinner. 6 months ago, Dylan didn't even look at them at all. This time she made it through the first two boards and decided that all he was trying to do was play peek-a-boo so she just kept smiling and watching for his face to come back! So, she failed. But she did give them a baseline for 6 months from now and hey, it is an improvement over last time right?

I told him about her Infantile Spasms and how much of an improvement we have seen since treatment concluded and they went away. He mentioned that kids with seizure activity do have a harder time just because there's so much going on in their little brains. We really have seen a huge difference since they stopped... so woo hoo!

Linda asked the doctor if she had CVI, Cortical Visual Impairment. It's basically where the eyes work, but the brain has a hard time processing what they see. I know of other kids with CVI and Dylan never really fit into that category for me at all but Linda seemed to really push to have it charted. Dr. Larson said most kids with HPE have it, and it's far more apparent than hers but he would say that her performance with the black and white stripe test (which I am SURE is it's official name) plus the HPE would indicate CVI and he would be willing to put it down. So, here's me... mama lion, not wanting another diagnosis for her cub and Linda was pushing for something that the doctor kind of seemed reluctant to write? So I asked Linda why we would push for that and she told me that it would just be a good thing to have charted so when she graduates into the school programs at 3 she gets additional vision therapy and treatment. Okay, I guess I can go for that... but I still don't like it. Especially because most kids with CVI have a hard time focusing on an object... which is NOT my little cub. Eh... okay, whatever.

So anyway, YAY no glasses... for now. Though with me as mom and Matthew as dad, she's doomed to have glasses at some point. I don't mind waiting though!

Duncan went to Aunt Ami's again and had a blast! He wouldn't eat lunch but she put it in a paper bowl in the car with him just in case he was too busy to eat. On the way home he ate the WHOLE bowl of food, threw the bowl and went to sleep! So happy.

He is growing up so fast... he loves to crawl around the floor with cars all day long. He gives great loves and SUPER kisses! And he's started to say 'thank you' although what he's really saying is "Thanks dad". Not sure why, but it will do!

I looked for a cute picture for this post and I got nuthin'. Bless his heart Duncan's wicked annoying when I pull the camera out so I am having the hardest time lately! Oh well.