Intermittent Exotropia Update – Time for Glasses

I haven’t done an update on Alivia’s Intermittent Exotropia for quite some time, so I thought I’d share the latest with all of you today.

Since I was sick, my husband took her to the last Ophthalmologist appointment.  Before I go into what she said, let me catch you up with what’s been going on.  As a reminder, you can read all my Intermittent Exotropia posts here to catch up.

I’d been patching Alivia’s eye for two hours a night and keeping a close watch on her deviation.  For months, the hubby and I didn't see it deviate much, so we decided to discontinue the eye exercises.  She was doing good for awhile.  Then, out of the blue, we started seeing it again.  Mostly when she was in her car seat, looking out the front of the car through the windshield to the outside.  At those times, we’d ask her to bring her eye in. Over time, she became a pro at bringing her eye in demonstrating impressive control over it which made us very happy.  Happy for us and her!

We can all benefit from eye exercises; especially our children!

Maybe you guys have been following my Intermittent Exotropia journey with Alivia, maybe you haven’t.  Regardless, though, did you know eye exercises are extremely beneficial even for children that don’t have an eye condition?  Even if your child has pretty good vision (meaning they don’t require glasses) there is always room for improvement.  Eye exercises, in addition to improving vision, can also improve hand-eye coordination, inattentiveness, and depth perception!

Intermittent Exotropia: Considering Surgery

It's been awhile since I blogged about Alivia's Intermittent Exotropia.  If you missed my last update, Back to Patching, feel free to catch up.  Additionally, I have a page dedicated to all of our Intermittent Exotropia updates (including resources) so if you haven't checked it out already, have at it! 

Back to patching (another intermittent exotropia update)

Alivia had her Ophthalmologist appointment on Tuesday.  This time, however, I was able to prepare her for it.  I talked to her about it in advance hoping it would make her more comfortable with taking the eye tests.  I had always talked to her in advance before her other appointments but, this time at almost 2 and half years old, she was finally old enough to understand.  As I put my makeup on at the bathroom sink her repetitive “no mama, no doctor” soon turned to “doctor check Livi’s eyes” and “doctor make eyes better”!  I can’t believe how much she was getting it!  And just incase the talk in advance wasn’t enough, I had another trick up my sleeve.  This time, Auntie Lola would accompany us to the appointment.  I knew Livi would be happy about this.  Before I go into detail about the appointment, you may want to get caught up HERE about Livi’s intermittent exotropia also know as strabismus.

Intermittent Exotropia… (wish I had control over my baby’s eyes)

I think I last left off telling you about how well Alivia was tolerating the eye patch.  Feel free to catch up on previous posts regarding Alivia’s Intermittent Exotropia HERE.  Since, and unfortunately, I’ve been seeing her strong eye now deviate outwards.  After a phone discussion with her Ophthalmologist, it was recommended that I stop the patch for at least a week or two to see how her eyes are doing.  If I’m not seeing her strong eye deviate, I can resume patching.  The goal, according to her doctor, is to keep the vision in both eyes as equal as we can.  As a reminder, the patching was not to treat the eye from deviating but to assist her in using the eye muscle in her weaker eye thus preventing vision deterioration/loss.

Intermittent Exotropia Update

First, if you unfamiliar with Alivia’s Intermittent Exotropia, you can find some previous posts I’ve published about it HERE.  

It’ll be about two months that we’ve been patching Livvy’s strong eye to treat her Intermittent Exotropia and she’s been tolerating it fabulously!  We started out with around 25 – 30 minutes and are currently patching for about an hour now!  When I first started patching I was noticing her eye deviate a lot less.  At around the month and a half mark, however, I started to see it deviating more frequently.  Not quite as frequent as when we weren’t patching at all but never the less, more frequent.  In the beginning I was hopeful that the patch was going to be a successful treatment but now I’m not so sure. 

The eye patch update

In case anyone’s been following our Intermittent Exotropia journey, I wanted to share some updates.  If you wanted to catch up you can find my previous posts on the subject HERE.

Last I left off I was trying the eye patch on Livvy’s good eye.  After that first try, however, I didn’t have much luck patching her eye for about a week or so.  I was not giving up though!  I thought it might be a good idea to try patching her eye when Daddy was home this time!  I thought he could help me get her excited to put and keep it on.  I put the eye patch on my hubby first and then on Livvy.  She looked like she was a little annoyed with it at first but we were quick to take her mind off it.  The hubby chased her around the house yelling out “I’m going to get you” while making this animalistic sound (something between a bark and bear growl).  I don’t know, don’t ask.  It seemed to work well and it’s amazing that Alivia could run without falling with only the one eye to see.  After that we put on Jake and the Neverland Pirates and she almost forgot her eye was patched completely!  It was a miracle!

New Pics… A Pigtail or Two

Guess what?  I finally made a button for this little ol’ blog o’ mine!  If you are interested in buttoning up, feel free to steal it!  You will see it in my sidebar.  The reason it took me so long to create one is because I wasn’t sure how to do it.  I finally had some time to do some research online and found a tutorial.  I would have attached the link to the site, but the code provided was incorrect.  After many tweaks, I finally fixed it.  I’ll try to do a future post about creating buttons incase you do not know how to create one yourself. 

 

On a different note, I just tried the patch on Alivia’s eye yesterday.  It didn’t go as badly as I had pictured it in my mind.  I had this idea that if she saw mommy wearing it, she may want to wear it too!  I actually saw a hint of a smile when I first put it on.  She thought we were being pirates together.  I ran around the house saying “Ahoy mates!”  Yes, it was quite the sight!  She quickly realized it wasn’t that fun after all.  I struggled with her a bit to keep it on, but in the end she won.  She finally ripped it off.  I don’t want to force it too much.  I don’t want her relating the patch to fighting with mama.  I will introduce it slowly but persistently in hopes that she, at some point, will be a little more cooperative.  I’m supposed to be patching her eye for about 20 – 30 minutes a day.  Even if I can get it on for 5 minutes at a time, I will be happy.  In case you are a little lost, I wrote about Alivia’s Intermittent Exotropia in some previous posts which you can find HERE and HERE.

New Pics... The Instagram (and some more Freebies)

I don't think I'm so wordless on this Wednesday but what do you think? 

Intermittent Exotropia (Alivia's follow-up Ophthalmologist Appointment):

You can find a previous post about Alivia's Intermittent Exotropia HERE.

Livvy had her follow-up Ophthalmologist appointment at Children's Hospital yesterday.  She has been seen in the past for Intermittent Exotropia.  Since her last appointment, her eye has gotten increasingly worse so I was anxious to get her in to see the doctor as soon as possible.  I was almost certain that the vision in her eye was starting to deteriorate and was preparing myself to hear treatment options.  Luckily her vision was fine!  Apparently because her eye is only turning outward some of the time her vision is less apt to deteriorate at a rapid pace if at all.  On the bad and scary side, the doctor informed us that she would probably need eye muscle surgery in the future but that it was difficult to know for sure since she couldn't get an accurate reading of her eye placement.  The only thing that would allow her to get an accurate eye reading was if Alivia were a little older and more cooperative.  With this said, the doctor will continue to see Alivia every three months.  In the meantime, she had suggested the patch as treatment for the eye muscle.  I am supposed to patch her strong eye for 20 minutes to a half an hour a day.  With her strong eye patched Alivia will be forced to exercise her weak eye in hopes of strengthening the eye muscle.  Unfortunately, however, the eye patch can cause the strong eye to deviate (since the eye muscle is not being used, this can sometimes happen).  In this case, I am instructed to stop the patch treatment immediately.  Now, for the BIG question.  How the hell am I going to get my 20 month old to wear a HUGE band aid patch over her eye?  And the other little questions that seem to follow.  What if I can't get her to wear it?  Am I a bad mother if I don't insist she wear it?  Do I argue with her?  Will she dislike me for making her wear it?  I guess I'll just have to see what happens.  It doesn't make any sense to worry about it now. 

My Baby's Eyes (Intermittent Exotropia)

I'm linking up to The Paper Mama photo challenge.  The theme this week is Eyes!  I couldn't think of a better picture to submit.  I love Alivia's hair pulled back this way; it really showcases those eyes of hers!  Although the color of her eyes is gorgeous (hazel, like her daddy), something about this black & white just works!

Speaking of eyes, we've recently learned that Alivia has intermittent exotropia which is a form of strabismus.  This is when one of the eyes acts independently from the other.  In her case, her left eye drifts outward when looking at far away objects.  When I first brought her in to see the Pediatric Ophthalmology Specialist at Children's Hospital in Boston, about 2 months ago, I was seeing her eye do this about 6 times a day.  Recently, however, it has gotten increasingly worse.  Now I was seeing it about 3-6 times an hour!  Apparently, when the eye acts independently, it is not communicating with the brain.  This is a scary thought!  The eye becomes weaker and the vision starts to deteriorate.  In absolute worse cases, the vision can be lost completely.  When this happens, it is called amblyopia or lazy eye.