When cja was a couple of months old, and he was awake for longer periods of time, I started to notice that his eyes were out of sync. It was almost as if he wasn’t focusing correctly at times, and then the next time I looked, he was fine. Any time I took a picture of him, though, I could clearly see that picture captured something wrong with his eye.
In February of last year, we took him for his first eye appointment with a specialist. At that appointment, she noted the discrepancies in his eyes, diagnosed it as strabismus, and sent us on our way with instructions to patch his weak eye for an hour everyday, and we all thought that would take care of it. The next couple of months were filled with an hour long struggle to occupy cja while he wore the eye patch for an hour. He earned the nick name of “fast hands” due to his lightening quick reflexes and his amazing ability to snatch the eye patch off his face in a blink of an eye. It was a frustrating hour each day because our normally sweet little boy became a frustrated and crabby little boy. But, his eyes were improving, and I got relaxed and started patching him less often (shame on me, I know) and life carried on. At the next appointment, he was doing so well, the doctor figured she’d check him one more time, in six months, and then discharge him from her caseload.
This was not the case in October when we last visited the specialist. Not only was his original problem worse, the other eye seemed to be veering off as well and the doctor was definitely more concerned. cja was really tired that morning so the affects were heightened (which is good, I suppose -the specialist got to see him at his worst), which made the picture as clear as it was going to get. We left that appointment with instructions to patch everyday, alternating eyes each time. I’ve been quite diligent about getting the patch on almost every day, and we’ve gone through many boxes of eye patches, had many fights with our little boy, but I haven’t seen much improvement since October.
On Wednesday, we head back to the specialist again. This time, she is going to repeat the full eye exam that she did when she saw cja for the first time last year. That means using eye drops to dilate the pupil, and holding him down so she can take an extensive look in both his eyes. I can guarantee a grumpy little boy and exasperated parents, and a frazzled doctor! This appointment will determine what course of action to take next. We can continue patching in hopes that his eyes will strengthen and improve, or we can pursue the option for surgery to permanently correct this problem. Both options are daunting, yet, thankfully, his condition is treatable. But, it’s still my little boy we’re talking about and it’s something that affects his eyes- his eyes!- and it weighs heavily on my heart.
Would you pray for cja? Would you pray for safe travels to and from the appointment? Would you pray for Dr. S to make the right diagnosis? That she would have the discernment and knowledge to suggest the appropriate next step? Pray that God would guide her thoughts and actions? Would you pray for cja, that he would be as cooperative as an 18 month old being held down by several people can be? And would you pray that this problem would be corrected, that cja would have no lasting negative affects and that his eyes and his body would be kept in God’s protection?
AS you can tell by all of the pictures of cja, his eyes are out of sync. When a light is shone into your eyes, it should hit the pupils equally, which it does not do in cja’s eyes. He still is pretty cute, though, isn’t he?!
Praying Renee!