First of all, I'd like to give a quick update on my dad. He is truly a miracle of God's work and power. He's a little over 5 weeks post stroke and is driving and working daily! Can you believe that?!?!? :-D There's still more healing to take place and I'm confident that he will back 100% very soon! I'm so proud of him and his hard work towards his recovery. Dear Lord, I can't possibly thank You enough! Thank you for healing my daddy!
Now onto my baby girl...
As most of you know, Scout started wearing glasses around 4 months ago. She doesn't wear them to correct her vision, but for accommodative esotrophia (strabismus). Basically, it's crossing of the eye(s). Her crossing is mostly in her right eye, but the left eye has a tendency to do the same thing, just not as much. The glasses were prescribed in hopes of strengthening her eye muscles and correcting the crossing. They have definitely helped, just not as much as Dr. Schmitt would like. Scout started wearing her glasses towards the middle of December. She did decent with them, but not as well as we were hoping. We went for her 2 month follow up in February. Dr. Schmitt measured her eyes and was able to see that the glasses had made a slight difference, just not as much as she had hoped. Since Scout had not be wearing her glasses constantly, Dr. Schmitt wanted to give them another month to see how much they improved. Adam and I had to buckle down and play "bad" Mama and Papa, but we were successful with getting Scout to wear her glasses all day, every day! So, in March, we went for another follow up. Dr. Schmitt was pleased with how much straighter Scout's eyes were, but still not enough. :( With that said, she is scheduled to have eye muscle surgery on Wednesday, April 20th. We've known about this for nearly a month, but didn't want to say much until it was definite. Dr. Schmitt wanted to wait another month to get new measurements. If the measurements had changed, then we would post-pone surgery until she got 2 consistent measurements a month apart. We went for her pre-op visit today and of course, her measurements were consistent with the measurements from the month prior.
I'm definitely scared, sad, and heart broken that my baby has to go through this, but at the same time, I know God will take good care of her. Dr. Schmitt told us that surgery was a possibly since our first visit. So, we've had plenty of time to mentally prepare ourselves. My biggest concern is having Scout under anesthesia. I know that Children's has the best pediatric anesthesiologist, but it's still scary because of all the risk factors.
For those that are wondering how the surgery is done, let me explain. Basically, Dr. Schmitt will make an incision on the inside corners of the eye (the white part). She is able to adjust the eye muscles through that incision. She will then stitch with dissolvable stitches. She tries to adjust them perfectly, but that's not always the result you get. Every patient is different. Initially, when she mentioned the possibility of surgery, she only wanted to correct what the glasses weren't correcting. Now she's decided to do a full correction to both eyes. She may still need to wear the glasses, it will just all depend on how well her eyes do post-op. If she doesn't have to, I will be a little sad. I'm so used to seeing her cute, little face with those glasses on. She looks so stinkin' cute in them. I won't, however, miss all the odd things strangers say and ask. Don't get me wrong, she gets lots of sweet compliments from people, they make up for the ones that are nosy and rude. The surgery should only take 40 minutes for both eyes and we should have a sweet angel back in our arms within an hour. This is going to be hard, but God has this! Adam and I would appreciate lots of prayers for our sweet girl. I will try to do a quick blog update the day of her surgery, if time permits. We will have to watch her closely because she will come home with nothing over her eyes. Dr. Schmitt said her eyes will be very irritated, and look like she has pink eye. We have to avoid water in the eyes for 2 weeks (glad it's not summer yet!) and of course no playing in dirt, mulch, etc. I don't think that will be a problem with my OCD child! :) She comes by it honest! ;)
God took care of my father, I know He will take care of my baby! God has this...
Of course, I can't do a post without pictures, so check out some of the shots from Scout's 21 month photo shoot by Days Go By Photography. We've done a photo shoot every 3 months since Scout was born, so I thought I'd keep that up until she's 2. We'll do it every 6 months after that. :) Enjoy!
Now onto my baby girl...
As most of you know, Scout started wearing glasses around 4 months ago. She doesn't wear them to correct her vision, but for accommodative esotrophia (strabismus). Basically, it's crossing of the eye(s). Her crossing is mostly in her right eye, but the left eye has a tendency to do the same thing, just not as much. The glasses were prescribed in hopes of strengthening her eye muscles and correcting the crossing. They have definitely helped, just not as much as Dr. Schmitt would like. Scout started wearing her glasses towards the middle of December. She did decent with them, but not as well as we were hoping. We went for her 2 month follow up in February. Dr. Schmitt measured her eyes and was able to see that the glasses had made a slight difference, just not as much as she had hoped. Since Scout had not be wearing her glasses constantly, Dr. Schmitt wanted to give them another month to see how much they improved. Adam and I had to buckle down and play "bad" Mama and Papa, but we were successful with getting Scout to wear her glasses all day, every day! So, in March, we went for another follow up. Dr. Schmitt was pleased with how much straighter Scout's eyes were, but still not enough. :( With that said, she is scheduled to have eye muscle surgery on Wednesday, April 20th. We've known about this for nearly a month, but didn't want to say much until it was definite. Dr. Schmitt wanted to wait another month to get new measurements. If the measurements had changed, then we would post-pone surgery until she got 2 consistent measurements a month apart. We went for her pre-op visit today and of course, her measurements were consistent with the measurements from the month prior.
I'm definitely scared, sad, and heart broken that my baby has to go through this, but at the same time, I know God will take good care of her. Dr. Schmitt told us that surgery was a possibly since our first visit. So, we've had plenty of time to mentally prepare ourselves. My biggest concern is having Scout under anesthesia. I know that Children's has the best pediatric anesthesiologist, but it's still scary because of all the risk factors.
For those that are wondering how the surgery is done, let me explain. Basically, Dr. Schmitt will make an incision on the inside corners of the eye (the white part). She is able to adjust the eye muscles through that incision. She will then stitch with dissolvable stitches. She tries to adjust them perfectly, but that's not always the result you get. Every patient is different. Initially, when she mentioned the possibility of surgery, she only wanted to correct what the glasses weren't correcting. Now she's decided to do a full correction to both eyes. She may still need to wear the glasses, it will just all depend on how well her eyes do post-op. If she doesn't have to, I will be a little sad. I'm so used to seeing her cute, little face with those glasses on. She looks so stinkin' cute in them. I won't, however, miss all the odd things strangers say and ask. Don't get me wrong, she gets lots of sweet compliments from people, they make up for the ones that are nosy and rude. The surgery should only take 40 minutes for both eyes and we should have a sweet angel back in our arms within an hour. This is going to be hard, but God has this! Adam and I would appreciate lots of prayers for our sweet girl. I will try to do a quick blog update the day of her surgery, if time permits. We will have to watch her closely because she will come home with nothing over her eyes. Dr. Schmitt said her eyes will be very irritated, and look like she has pink eye. We have to avoid water in the eyes for 2 weeks (glad it's not summer yet!) and of course no playing in dirt, mulch, etc. I don't think that will be a problem with my OCD child! :) She comes by it honest! ;)
God took care of my father, I know He will take care of my baby! God has this...
Of course, I can't do a post without pictures, so check out some of the shots from Scout's 21 month photo shoot by Days Go By Photography. We've done a photo shoot every 3 months since Scout was born, so I thought I'd keep that up until she's 2. We'll do it every 6 months after that. :) Enjoy!
We love our girl!
Our child has the wittiest personality. She brings us much joy!
She was on a mission!
Scout really enjoyed smelling and picking the flowers, but she paid for it dearly the next day. Yet, another allergy flare up! Poor girl! We are now indefinitely on Singulair in the morning and Zyrtec at night. :)
Scout wasn't exactly excited about posing here because she wanted to "walk", as she says, but she dealt with it. 
My girl!!
She's so stinkin' cute!!
The older she gets, the harder it is to get her to sit still for pictures. She wanted to be on the move and refused to sit on the steps with us. Normally, she would have gotten her bottom busted, but I didn't want to ruin the rest of the shoot. Terrible Twos, here we come!! ;)
She has such a concerned look on her face.
She thought she was big deal sitting on this bench. I love her eyes! They are gorgeous!
Look how precious!! We love her so much!
This is so Scout! Rotten to the core!
Pigtails!! She calls them her "piggies". 
Love this picture! My gorgeous, little model!
Cutie Patootie!
She's always on the go...
I love that mischievous smile on her face!
We went to Rita's in Market Square to enjoy some Italian ice. Scout seemed to enjoy it, although, she isn't typically a fan of cold stuff, like ice cream.
She is one beautiful baby...When I was about 2 years old, I had not learned to talk yet and I would turn tv up really loud. My mother thought I was deaf. When she took me to the specialist, he told her that it was not not my ears but my eyes. She then took me to the eye specialist. I was so blind that I could not see one's mouth to be able to learn how to form the words so I could not talk. The first pair of glasses were like coke bottles..They made my eyes so huge. My eyes also crossed. I had to wear those glasses for years but they finally corrected them. No surgery was performed. I did get a lot of laughs from some kids in school and it broke my heart. But...now I only have to wear contacts and read with $1.00 reading glasses. My eyes are no longer crossed and I thank my Lord and parents for taking care of me. In the 50's that was no easy task and I applaude them for it...:O) Hugs for watching out for little Scout and my prayers will be with you on the 20th of April...Please let us know how everything turned out! Deb Cook
ReplyDeleteDebbie, thanks for sharing your story with me! Also, thanks for all your sweet words and all the prayers. You are too kind!
ReplyDelete