Eye am so glad it’s done!

Today we had our fourth doctor appointment in (less than) four weeks.  We have one more next week, and we are DONE, hopefully until around her birthday. 

We saw the eye doctor to get a baseline of where her eyes are.  Lots of kiddos with Ds end up needing glasses, and if it’ll help her development, we’re more than willing to do it earlier rather than later.  We’ve figured she’s probably doomed, anyway, since genetics don’t play in her favor there.

I’ve been horrified of this appointment since we brought her home from the hospital.  Seven weeks in the NICU, and watching all those babies get their eyes checked for ROP, had me terrified of doing it with her.  I was actually more apprehensive for this appointment than I was for surgery.  Go figure.

So we get there, and talk with the nurse, and she says that since Piper was a 32-weeker, they’ll really check her well for ROP.  Great.  That was exactly NOT what I wanted to hear.  I want to make sure there are no problems, yes.  I do NOT want to do the exam for it.  So they checked her tracking, checked her for glaucoma, and did some basic looking, and then took her to dilate her eyes.  She did NOT like that part, and if she was able, I’m sure she would have walked out and driven home by herself.  Luckily for us, she still requires her stroller, or our arms, as her primary mode of transportation, and was forced to stay put. 

We finally had our “actual” exam with the doctor.  I have NO idea what I was so worried about—the worst part was the eye drops.  It was definitely not the eye exams they did in the NICU.  Alleluia. 

The best news was that she had NO abnormal nerve function or formation and the vessels were all normal.  WONDERFUL.  One thing we can mark off our worry-list.  She had a tiny bit of astigmatism in one eye, but he said it was “like splitting hairs” with that.  She is, however, on the outer range of normal for overall sight.  She doesn’t need glasses now, and there’s a chance that as she grows, she’ll get better at focusing and her vision will improve.  So, we’ll go back in 6 months to check again.  No biggie.  Especially since it’s a whole lot easier than I thought it was going to be. 

And, really-- she could be pretty cute in little spectacles, don’t ya think?