[tri-med] Eye Dr. visit today - update on Caroline

We saw Caroline's ophthalmologist today.  We have been seeing her since 
birth.  Caroline has very small pupils and, especially when she was little, 
shaky eyes.  She does seem to see things close to her, she does track 
objects - although not completely consistently, but she doesn't seem to 
notice things at any distance.  The dr had diagnosed her with optic nerve 
hypoplasia (small optic nerve), but was unsure as to the degree.  Apparently 
the affect can range from very small vision problems to complete blindness. 
The dr told us today that Caroline's optic nerve is small, on a scale, she 
is closer to "normal" than "non-existent".  If that makes sense.  However, 
the dr does feel that Caroline's vision is about 20/200 which would classify 
her as legally blind.  She can see objects up to about 8 inches.  It is 
kinda hard to take.  It actually isn't anything we didn't know, it just 
sounds so final.  We know she looks at objects, reaches for toys, looks at 
us when we talk to her and hold her, but she definitely doesn't notice when 
we walk into the room.  The dr stated that the legally blind classification 
would entitle her to some social services in the future.  There is no way to 
correct her problem (e.g. glasses, surgery etc).

We are now working on getting her some vision therapy.  This will be more 
difficult as there is no vision therapist available in our county.  Like I 
said, this isn't really anything we didn't know before, it just seems more 
definite.  Her vision has definitely been her obstacle for other therapies 
as she has no real interest in moving to get objects out of her reach, which 
is what motivates most children to start crawling.

Well, I am tired and need to get horizontal.  Thanks for listening.

Irene
(Christina -3  y.o,  Caroline - born 6/28/03 with partial trisomy 17p, AND 
baby #3 due 6/16/05)
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/c/carolinerochelle 

                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

Other related posts: