Ever since Hunter was born his left eye has always given him trouble. At the age of 2 while still living with his birth mother she found out that he had a lazy eye and needed glasses. When Matt got custody of Hunter about a year later and Matt and I got together we strived really hard to try to improve Hunter's eye sight and hopefully correct or at least keep his eye from getting worse. We had taken him to several eye doctors but kept his care with the original doctor that his birth mother had started out with because he knew his history and we thought he could give him the best care. At around age 4 the care plan was to give Hunter a prescription in his glasses that was a little less then what he needed to make his eye work harder to see to strengthen the muscle and then to patch his good eye as much as possible to force him to use his bad eye.
It was very hard to keep the patch on Hunter's eye he was determined not to wear it. What was even harder was Hunter would be made to wear it with us but when he would go to visit his birth mom and grandma they would allow him to take it off and not wear it. It made it very hard and it would take away from the progress we would make during the week. They just didn't understand the good it was doing for him. It was amazing how many people thought it was wrong for us to force Hunter to wear the patches but we did because we knew the good that it was doing but so many people thought it was wrong and put us down for it. Well after 2 years of struggling with this the doctor didn't think we were making enough progress and told us that we were pretty much beyond the age of it working anyway and we should just have Hunter wear his glasses and then talk about contacts when he got older. So that's what we have been doing all these years since then.
When Triniti started having her seizures the neurologist sent us to a pediatric eye specialist (ophthalmologist) to have her eyes checked and I started talking to him about Hunter's eyes and everything we had been through with that and he suggested that I bring Hunter into see him because he thought that Hunter might be a candidate for surgery.
So we finally got Hunter in today - Hunter was pretty excited that there was a possibility of surgery and not having to wear his glasses anymore. The doctor started looking at the prescription in Hunter's glasses and then dilated Hunter's eyes and started looking at them. He couldn't believe how under prescribed the doctor had done Hunter's glasses. The worst part about it is Hunter's good eye he sees almost 20/20 - the doctor didn't do anything with that lens so Hunter shut off all vision to his bad eye and only "sees" out of his good eye. Basically right now Hunter is blind in one eye - there is no sight in Hunter's bad eye. That's scary. The doctor was really angry that they had us stop patching Hunter's eye because we really should have been doing it all this time until Hunter is 12 years old. His other doctor and his birth mom and grandma really hurt Hunter's eyes by not doing what was best for him and got us to where we are today. The patch would have prevented Hunter's vision from being shut off in that eye. Hunter is not a candidate for surgery and he is SOOOO very disappointed about it.
Our plan of treatment now is we are getting Hunter new glasses ones that will actually help him see better but hinder his right eye a little bit and force his bad eye to work to make him see. We will also be patching his eye for 4 hours a day everyday. He's not to excited about it but we told him he just had to do it when we are at home and not when we go out anywhere. We really need to get that sight turned back on quickly. Right now the doctor doesn't know if it will work or not. Keep your fingers crossed.
We did talk to the doctor about contacts right now it's out of the question because -
1.) We have to get the sight back in Hunter's bad eye first putting a contact in his eye will still allow Hunter to shut his vision off.
2.) The glasses are a protective cover for his good eye - if something were to happen to his good eye he would be blind - this one scares me a lot especially because Hunter loves to play sports.
3.) Hunter has to prove to the eye doctor that he can take care of his contacts - we all know the risk of eye infections and eye issues with contacts so Hunter has to really work hard and prove to the doctor he can take care of contacts. Basically the eye doctor wants Hunter to put effort into the patch to show him he really wants contacts. So we will see how bad Hunter wants them.
We are praying really hard that Hunter will get some vision back into his eye. I do not ever want Hunter to be blind and we really have to remind him about taking care of his eyes and protecting them. We see the doctor again in 6 weeks so hopefully there will be at least some good change!
Here's a picture of Hunter at the doctor's this morning!! These were glasses they used to test his eyes I told him we were going to buy ones likes these for his new frames! :) Keep his eyes in your prayers and hopefully we will get some good news about them in 6 weeks! He has a long road with them but it's a road worth taking and really trying to get his sight back!!
We patched Hunter's eye tonight and he couldn't see out of his eye at all - Matt even threw a little plastic cap at Hunter and he didn't move at all he didn't see it at all. It's really hard to have your child not able to see and thinking that it could be a lifetime of not seeing. It just makes us know we have to work that much harder to get it working again!
My heart aches. I understand. It's what we are facing with Cayman's right eye. She will not wear her glasses at all! She buries her face when she sees us coming at her with them. :) Silly girl. We return to the doctor next month. I'm sure he will start talking patching. I do not know how we are going to get a ornery 2 year old to keep that on either but I feel the weight of how important it is.
ReplyDeleteHunter will be in our prayers.