Alexandra (Aly) age 19 months
Aly’s journey to glasses started a little differently than most babies. Once in awhile we would notice her looking cross-eyed, but that was normal baby behavior. Aly was completely healthy for the first eight months of her life, but in July 2012, she had a seizure at daycare and was rushed to the hospital. An MRI revealed that her brain was dangerously swollen and her doctors weren’t sure why. She spent ten days in the hospital, about half in intensive care. The doctors never discovered the exact cause of the brain swelling, but she has been seizure free since then.
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After the incident, we noticed her eye turning in more often. Her neurologist suggested we contact a Pediatric Opthamologist. For us, it was yet another doctor we had to see and yet another thing to worry about.  He determined that she has accomodative esotropia. He also thought that her brain injury could have caused pressure to be put on her eye muscles, and contributed to the eye turning. The PO prescribed glasses for Aly and she started wearing them in November of 2012.
The glasses helped her eye turn, but did not completely correct it. At her second follow up, her PO suggested surgery to fix the muscles in her eyes. We were taken aback at this news, but considered the options. Aly still had good vision in both eyes, and her prescription was very minor. The doctor believed doing surgery now would help prevent ambloypia and help her maintain good vision. We trusted our doctor, and in March of 2013 Aly had the surgery. She did very well and her eyes are much more aligned. She still wears glasses and sometimes its a struggle to keep them on, but she has done so well. Surgery was scary, but Aly has shown herself to be incredibly resilient and the benefits have made it worth it. I would suggest that any parent facing surgery for their child do their research, make sure they trust their doctor completely and ask around on the little four eyes page on facebook.
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Aly does have a blog about her recovery progress including her developmental delays and her eye conditions. Check it out here: http://cheeringforaly.blogspot.com/

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