Backing up a bit ... In May Anna had bilateral eye muscle surgery to correct her double vision, along with removing the chalazion. At the follow up appointment in June, everything looked great. Her doctor was calling the surgery a success. Then July hit.
At some point in July, we noticed that the redness in Anna's eyes finally fade, but then her left eye started turning outwards very noticeably. At the same time, her left eyelid was quite droopy. Since this was in the midst of her Advance session, we weren't sure what to make of the whole thing. We called the ophthalmologist, sent them messages via mychart, etc., but didn't hear much back from them besides "It's fine ... it will go away."
When Anna had her pre-op physical before her MRI, our primary care physician recommended that we make an appointment to see the ophthalmologist, which we did. At first, they weren't going to be able to get us in until October or November. Then, they found some room in someone's schedule and we saw them the week before school started, at which point the fill-in ophthalmologist wanted us to see our primary ophthalmologist, which we did last Tuesday.
All signs are pointing to the fact that Anna's eye muscles were not healed enough at the time the dissolvable stitches dissolved, and the muscles involved in May's surgery came detached from the eyes. Sigh. This situation is not common in kids. In the geriatric population, yes. But not in kids. Kids are supposed to heal much faster, so that when the stitches dissolve between six and eight weeks, everything has been healed for a long time. The eye doctor is communicating with Anna's oncologist to see if and how this slow healing could be related to Anna's treatments. Sigh.
Where do we go from here? (Actually, I asked that question, along with many others, at Tuesday's appointment.) Another eye surgery is scheduled for Monday, October 2, this time to reattach the muscles with permanent stitches. In the meantime, Anna has another pre-op physical because her one from the beginning of August is more than 30 days old. Our poor primary care physicians are getting tired of seeing us just to make sure Anna can undergo anesthesia. But I digress ...
At least the ophthalmologist was able to easily and confidently diagnose the eye issue and there is a relatively easy "fix" for the problem.
Time for other stuff.
Ethan dressed himself on Saturday. Like it?
We tried to convince him to turn his shirt around, but he would take no suggestions. I think we will keep working on his concept of what "matches", though.
On Friday afternoon, Ethan and I had a great time playing in our pool again. It's pretty crazy that the weather warmed up enough for more pool weather, but we'll take what we can get.
Saturday the whole family played together in the pool for the first time in probably over a month. Maybe the pool will get a little more use yet this week; the weather is supposed to be unseasonably warm and humid this whole week.
Kate walked in the McFarland Family Festival parade on Sunday with the 4H group.
We think we may have finally found something that will be interesting enough, small enough, and fun enough for Kate. We're looking forward to seeing how our family fits with the local 4H crew. It probably helps that Kate's best buddy from second grade is also in our local 4H club :)
Besides the parade, we opted out of the other family festival activities. The venue was moved (we think because of the construction around the schools this year) and the parking at the new location was less than ideal if you have a child with mobility challenges. We chose to stay home and play in our yard this weekend instead. Definitely a good choice for us this year.
Now it's on to another week!
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