Eyes and Ears

Sophie's 11:30 appointment with ENT/audiology finally got under way today at St. Louis Children's Hospital around 12:45. The nurse held her down with a vice grip so that the ENT could get a look and clean out her waxy ears. She screamed so much that there were snot bubbles coming out of her nose and mouth and capillaries broke all over her little face (see red spots in pic above). He got a good look in her right ear and saw fluid and no movement of the ear drum. The left ear was even more waxy and Sophie had had enough so I asked for a break. He didn't get as clear of a look, but decided to stop as he had made his decision. (The left ear also had "some white" in it.) So, she's getting tubes in both ears at SLCH in 3 weeks. Audiology was cancelled for the day as it would be pointless now and they check hearing 4-6 weeks post surgery anyway.

Then, the eyes. Sophie's Strabismus surgery last May on her left eye was related to superior oblique muscle palsy. To 'fix' it, the surgeon cut and moved the opposite muscle to weakened it so that they would be even (layman's terms). This muscle effects more of the up and down movement of the eye. What Sophie has now is also Strabismus, but of the (bi)medial rectus muscle, or those that effect the left to right movement. As this Momologist suspected and insisted they check (though I'm sure they would have anyway), this time BOTH eyes are affected. Her eyes are not turning in severely at this point and her vision is good and pretty much equal in both eyes, which means her brain is not favoring one over the other. They're calling it intermittent esotropia. We were instructed to come back in 3-4 months or earlier if it gets worse. Hmm. I wonder what we might be doing around May 10th (Maybe's due date), and June (a possible move depending on the job situation)? So we haven't scheduled yet as I've got to figure that out.

We didn't see our regular opthomologist today as she was in surgery. Instead we had a resident. Nice guy, but I've got more questions than answers and will be calling to talk to the doc tomorrow. The resident said that this is not something that eye exercises or patching will help and that 'possible' bimedial rectus recession would be needed. However, once you start moving more than one muscle, you can end up with 'weird' things happening.

I know it could be much worse news. I will adjust to this new information and move forward. In the meantime I had a hot fudge sundae on the drive home.

Also, our dentist had the misfortune of calling to reschedule Alexander's appointment for Friday. This would be the 4th appointment in a row that they've rescheduled just days prior so that the dentist could attend a meeting or training. Guess what? I fired them and politely but firmly explained that they clearly do not value their patients' time. So now we need a new dentist.

On a wonderful note, it was 66 degrees in St. Louis and Kinlee was born today! I won't steal her momma's glory, so I'll hold back from revealing the details. We had planned to get a peek, but with our sickies, we opted to drop off some goodies with RK's sister instead. We'll see them in 3 weeks when we go back and I won't have to fight off the crowd! Congratulations to the family!