Speaking of Riley...

I am a procrastinator. I don't like thinking about things until they are unavoidable. Sometimes it's a good thing and works for me; sometimes not. I can't figure out how it is working as I face the challenges with Levi's CP. A couple of people have asked me about his appointment coming up. I usually just give a brief, "oh, ya know, just a general check-up" with maybe a little added something about his eye appointment. Aaahh, the eye appointment. I realized this week that the 22nd (the date of the appointment) is NEXT WEEK. (Ummm, where has September gone? Time - could you slow down, please?) I need to be prepared for this eye appointment. So, I was doing some reading on strabismus, treatment options, success rates, etc. Let's just say, YIKES. The word "surgery" was already thrown out there in the last appointment. I don't like that. What I don't like even more is the fact that I think Levi has the most severe kind of strabismus (congenital esotropia - basically, misalignment of eyes from birth, and he actually seems to have it in both eyes, which is rare). I was reading about treatment options: there's patching, vision therapy, and surgery. If it comes down to surgery, we have to ask 2 questions: will surgery result in eyes working as binocular team? What is the likelihood of repeat surgeries? From what I understand, the answer to both of these questions is usually not what you want to hear. For the surgery to create the desired result, the alignment of both eyes has to be completely perfect or the surgery becomes just a cosmetic fix. Generally, multiple surgeries are required because the brain has trouble recognizing the "fix" from surgery, and I think this is especially true in Levi's case because of his CP. His brain may be (and may continue to) have trouble sending information to his eye and vice versa.

So, we have a lot to think about and pray about. Please pray for wisdom on our part, clarity in understanding what the real issue is (what his real diagnosis is), and the ability to communicate effectively and assertively with the doctors and/or team that will be working on Levi's vision. If you want more detailed information, click HERE