Two years ago, in March 2009, we took Rebekah to a pediatric ophthamologist because we noticed that her left eye was "wandering" outward. After that 1st appointment we found out that Rebekah needed glasses and that there was also another issue with her eye, to which we were referred to a Dr. at Children's Memorial.
The Dr. at Children's confirmed that both of Rebekah's eyes have dislocated lenses. Her left eye has a severe lens subluxation, which means that the lens of the eye is off-center and is not attached properly. We were then referred to a surgeon, who recommended we try contact lenses to try and improve her vision. He said the surgery was too risky for a child of her age (2 yrs. old). He said if we could improve her vision by 50% with the contacts, it would be better than taking the risk of surgery. We were also advised to patch (cover) her good eye, so it would force the bad eye to work and for the brain to communicate better with it. The goal is to not lose the communication between the brain and eye, which was beginning to happen with the wandering eye.
During this time we also found out that lens subluxation is also associated with with a couple different genetic, connective tissue disorders, Homocystinuria and Marfan Syndrome. We were fortunate enough to rule out Homocystinuria with a blood test right away. Marfan Syndrome is a little different and is diagnosed by the symptoms a person has. She had an echo cardiogram and was examined by a Geneticist and there were no major concerns at that time. It was recommended that she have a repeat Echo and check up in 2 years and we would do this until she grew more (probably until puberty) and would display more symptoms. We were also told that this could very well just be an isolated issue with her eyes. We were content with this information and were now looking to improve her eye sight.
By September 2009 Rebekah was fitted for her 1st pair of gas permeable contact lenses. We picked them up just one week before Aaron made his way into our lives. She did amazing with them. Over the past 2 years Rebekah has gone through a couple pair of contacts due to her growing and eyes changing.
This spring we went for a check up and we got a new pair of lenses for her, but because her vision is so poor the lens is thick, it was not fitting her eye properly, so we ran into our 1st wall. Since we started this process, they have come up with a new technology to allow a stronger prescription in soft lenses, while allowing adequate oxygen to flow to the eyes.
During this visit her ophthalmologist informed us that over the 18 months that Rebekah has been in contacts it really hasn't improved her vision much more than her glasses. Rebekah's left eye, with her glasses on is only 20/80. This means that what you or I can see at 80 feet away, she can only see at 20 feet. Her Dr. is concerned that her vision is at the very bottom of where he would want it to be and is concerned that the older she gets the harder it will be to get the brain function back, so he recommended for us to meet with the surgeon again to have her reevaluated.
It is a good thing to be proactive and have a plan in place, so we have an appointment on Wed. June 22 to find out what the future of her eyes holds. In the meantime we are letting her choose each day whether she wants to wear her glasses or contacts and will decide after the meeting with the surgeon whether we will continue with the contacts or not.
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