[tri-med] Re: opthamologist

Kelly:

Because Krissy doesn't always close her eyes completely she
developed calluses on her corneas. After trying several things to
stop this from happening one of the calluses spread and began to
cover her pupil and effect her ability to see. Krissy
opthalmologist recommended a corneal transplant. The only reason
her trisomy came up was the question of not knowing how
"cooperative" Krissy would be with the recovery! She came through
like a trooper!

I dreaded the thought of doing it but one of the things her
doctor and I talked about is that her vision is extremely
important. Because our kids can't move freely around in their
world - go touch and explore etc, their vision is one of their
biggest assets in experiencing the world around them. More than
dreading the idea of the surgery I dreaded the thought that one
day she wouldn't be able to see. That was not an acceptable
outcome if there was an alternative.

Personally I would do whatever it takes to keep her vision
strong. Its her window to the world!

All the best,
Terre
=20
Mom to Kevin - 21, Keith - 18, Kenny - 15, Korey - 13, and
precious
Krissy (better known as Princess Krissy!) (T18) - 7 years - with
a smile that lights up the world!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Terre Krotzer
terre@xxxxxxxxxxxx
=20
" There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the
mirror that reflects it."=20
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Show your family how much you care...
Get your Will and Living Will in place today...=20
www.krotzers.com


-----Original Message-----
From: tri-med-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:tri-med-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
dncingqwn@xxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 9:35 AM
To: tri-med@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [tri-med] opthamologist


about a week or so ago i took kaiya to see the opthamologist.
wait...some background might help this post make more sense.
kaiya has ptosis in the right eye, the nerve in the right eye is
also small. in her left eye the nerve is shaped differently - has
a coloboma. even with this, the doctors don't feel that her
vision is all that bad. she tracks well, she looks at things. so
we had a visit right before conference this year and the doc
prescribed patching because he felt she was using one eye more
than the other. and i would have thought that she would use the
left eye more because the right eye is kind of closed - but he
said the left eye seemed to be the weaker one. he also prescribed
glasses. he said that the prescription wasn't all that high so
they weren't mandatory - but it might help with some of her
issues at school. the one issue that i've always had is kaiya
will tilt her head back to be able to see out of her right eye.
doesn't do much for her posture! i brought this up to the doc and
he said that as long as she's compensating for the ptosis, he
wouldn't recommend surgery to fix it. so
  we went on our way...and went to see the opthamologist at
conference. this doc pretty much disagreed with everything our
opthamologist here said....which brings us to the visit a week
ago (takes a long time to get in b/c they only take medicaid
patients one day a month...blah blah blah....that's another
story) so anyway - this doc that we had seen previously, and i
really liked him the first time we met b/c he sat and talked
about trisomy and had questions and made recommendations...well,
he seemed a little disturbed that i brought in a letter from the
doc we saw at conference. it's not like i walked in waving it
around saying "AHA YOU WERE WRONG!" i just said, hey - this guy
said one thing and you said another - i'm confused - can you take
another look and see what you think? so yes, kaiya is a tough
examination because she would rather smile and flirt at the doc
than look through his silly lenses - deal with it dude! in the
end the doc brought in another doc in the practi  ce and this guy
took a quick look at kaiya. he sat down and we had "the
discussion". (i'm sure you are all familiar with it.) he asked if
she was going to be getting any other surgeries any time soon and
i told him no. then he went on to say that a lot of kids have
ptosis as severe as hers and don't even notice it. they just
compensate with the other eye. he said that if he saw a "regular"
kid with a ptosis this severe he would definitely do the surgery.
and if she was going under for something else, he would
definitely do it b/c he could just pop in, fix the eye, and it
wouldn't be a big deal. but because of her trisomy other issues
have to be considered. (this is where the hair on the back of my
neck began to bristle...) he did not feel that she would have any
issues with anesthesia, and the surgery wouldn't be a huge issue
for her because it is a simple repair. he said that all issues
had to be looked at to see if the surgery would really be
beneficial to her. we wouldn't
  ever be able to know if her vision was improved all that much
because she couldn't tell us. so he told me that while it would
be a necessary procedure for a "normal" kid - for kaiya it was
basically an elective procedure. he said that some parents choose
to be agressive and some feel that their kids have enough going
on without having to be put under for this type of surgery as
well. now, to give him credit - he did put it very well. my
interpretation of our conversation is obviously not worded as
well as he said it. which is why i think i'm conflicted. i went
in with the mind set that this ptosis should definitely be fixed,
and her compensations are not working because they are negatively
impacting her posture which as a whole does not work. when i
walked out, i almost felt guilty for thinking that way... i don't
know if it's just a mommy thing and i'm scared to let them do
anything to my baby...or what is going on. we go back in three
months for another check up and to gi  ve him an answer i
guess...

so basically, what do you guys think?=20

kelly - mom to akaiya T18 - 5 yrs.

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