A little update

Remember how this sassy sweetheart has had to rock an eye patch for the past 3 months? Well, she has been such a trooper. She just takes whatever life hands her and does it with flair. We had our follow-up appointment with the fabulous Dr. S yesterday and had some mixed results. While the vision in her weak eye (eye that was not patched) has improved slightly, the eye that was patched (formerly the strong eye) has seen some decreased vision over the past 3 months. This is to be expected because of the patching. However. Interesting to note--Dr. S says at this point, Zoe's overall vision is still so poor that she would not legally be able to drive. Whoa!! I had no idea it was that bad. But the good news is that it is potentially still correctable. We just need to keep working at it, patching when it needs to be patched and staying on top of it. The vision that she has when she is around 8 years of age is the vision that she will have as she moves into adulthood. So we still have a few years to work with it. It is amazing what the eyes and the optic nerves can do and adjust to! We are just overwhelmingly thankful, as always, that this was caught so very early, that we have such an amazing pediatric ophthalmologist right here in our backyard, and that she can read and write and play soccer and all of those things that require vision! :)

So the treatment at this point is much less painless (not that it was painful per se--I just felt SO bad for Zoe with that patch every day at school--it literally drained the life out of her). We have to patch her eye for just 2 hours a day, and NOT while she is at school. Praise the Lord. I kid you not, that is an answer to prayer. We are going to be alternating the patch--right eye one day, left eye the next day--for 3 months, then she gets 2 months off from the patch entirely. We don't have to visit our fantastic Dr. S for another 5 months. Our little Miss is most unforgettable and our optical tech and the nurses readily remember her each time we go, even if it's been 5 months. :) At this point her chances of needing surgical correction for anything are about 30 % and I'm not entirely sure what would cause us to need surgery...but I'm holding on tight to the 70% part of that equation. As you can tell, we are very thankful for the great care that Zoe has received with her vision. As far as ongoing medical problems go, I will take this one any day--6 pairs of broken glasses and all! Her glasses and the patch just add to her sparkly little personality. Her teacher told me the other day when I said we were hopefully going to be getting rid of the patch that she would be a little sad to see it go--it's just part of what makes Zoe who she is. :) That's our girl.