Hurray for Andrew...vision update

Today we went back to Dr. Mazow for our 6wk follow up. We have been patching again for 5 hrs a day which we increased to more like 7-8hrs a day after about 2wks. From our experience patching Andrew prior to surgery we could tell the 5hr patching was really not long enough so we increased the time as the 7-8hr seems to be what works for Andrew. Even a few weeks ago we began to notice some changes. Andrew would tell us that he could see better (while patched) and he was reading numbers, letters, and signs from the car that told us he had improved some. We never imagined how much though!
We arrived at Dr. Mazow's office and it was very busy. I guess everyone was trying to get in before school starts back. Anyway, it was the usual routine only we had forgotten that we were to have his eyes dilated today. So, that made it a little longer visit. Andrew tested 3 lines better, with a strong 20/60. We were so excited to have so much progress in a short time. This pretty much put us back to where we had started before the surgery. Once dilated though Andrew blew us all away with an unaided 20/30 in his left eye...what we were told would be next to impossible! I was fighting back tears of joy for Andrew! It has all been worth it!! Truly an amazing gift of the Lord to restore Andrew's vision in this way. Tears well up even as I write this that we are witnessing a miracle in little Andrew's life.
Sweet Andrew didn't even really understand why everyone in the office and David and I were so happy. To Andrew it was just another eye test. I had to explain it to him in the car. We grabbed a sandwich at Subway after and as we were going in Andrew had time to process all that had just happened and this is what he told me. "Mommy, I am just so grateful that my eyes are better, I am so grateful" Andrew never ceases to amaze me with his tender heart and genuineness. I told him I too was grateful to the Lord for all that He has blessed us with. For all the eye appointments this past year that ended in tears of frustration and sometimes moments of a loss of hope that led us back to prayer for mercy on our little Andrew we are so very grateful for this precious gift of sight from the Lord that truly is a miracle.
We still have a long road of patching and work to do to improve and keep his vision, but this was a huge day that has given all of us a renewed "vision" and hope to continue in faith trusting the Lord with each step and giving Him abundant praise for all that He is doing in our lives.
We will be back to see Dr. Mazow around the first of October and as long as we are continuing to hold and improve vision we will begin to decrease the patching time over the course of the next year. As Dr. Mazow explained it the patch will eventually be like a retainer where Andrew wears it only a few hours for a few days a week. At this point it would seem that a second surgery on the right eye is off the table for now. We will still need to work on his binocular/3-D vision as he is still not able to see with both eyes together passed his nose. We pray that even this would be restored to him. In addition to our work with patching we are looking into a NeuralDevelopmental Program that may also help improve his vision. I hope to post about this soon. I am still researching and reading about it, but have found a good source that encourages the program be done by parents at home...just what we have been looking for...PTL that He continually opens new doors when others close. I also want to thank all of you for your faithful prayers for our family and comments of encouragement. It means so much to us! We are so blessed by you.

Update on Andrew's Vision Progress: Post Surgery & Children's Museum Trip

Learning about viscosity. The density of different liquid
materials.


Learning about the density of different solid
materials.


The robot arm building the toy trolley.


The boys built their own wooden trolley then
tested it to see how well it was built. They
did a good job of following instructions.


Water works! The kids had a great time exploring
the different types of levies and currents with their
boats on the water.




Emily had to get a few belly pics in...boy was
it hot!


Inside a police car simulator


Playing market...one of their favorite things to do at home
too. This was a really large market though.




Mimi making a rare photo appearance! Mom grabbed the
camera from her for a moment. Trying to do that more often :)



Andrew the artist!




Today we headed back to Dr. Mazow for our 4wk post op appointment. While Andrew's eye is healing up nicely he is still having some double vision in his left eye. According to his vision test he has lost vision in his left eye again. We are now back to 20/90 which is close to the vision he had when we started with Dr. Mazow. While this was disappointing and down right frustrating for all of us, especially Andrew we were not entirely surprised.

Andrew's right eye has been dominate for 6+ years now and given the opportunity to do so it will dominate and keep the left eye weak apparently even with the new alignment. This is the amazing ability our Creator, Almighty God gave our brains to compensate and make the most of what works well in the absence of treatment. So, given the time gone untreated the re-training is hard! This is the major difficulty with untreated amblyopia...it just isn't an easy fix and likely may take us a long time to re-train his brain to accept the second signal. We are praying for healing and persevering. Andrew being a little trooper is complying with going back to patching 5hrs a day...bless his heart! We will be doing this for 6wks then we go back to check our progress. Best case is that we have regained what we lost and we are back up to 20/60. Now how we hold that once we get there is still unclear to us. We are hoping to understand more on this at our next visit

Another issue that we had hoped would not be the case, but knew there was a chance is that Andrew's right eye is also out of alignment. We opted for the Dr. who was more conservative and only wanted to operate on the left eye (many will just do both eyes and not even consider that one may be aligned). After discussing this with Dr. Mazow we were even more convinced that only operating on the left was the right course since Andrew has such perfect vision in his right eye and the risks outweighed the benefits.

So, now we see that possibly Andrew has an alignment issue in the right as well. If so, it is just very slight and given the severity of the left was really not easily detected. It is likely that we will have to do surgery again...possibly soon. The main reason for the additional surgery is that with the eyes out of alignment it will make it more difficult for both his right and left eye to work together in what is called stereo or binocular vision. I might add that the "misalignment" in the right eye is virtually undetectable when looking at him. It is only at a certain angle that I thought there was a slight discrepancy...in fact I wasn't sure that it was not an optical illusion as his left eye is still healing and has stayed recessed some as a result of the surgery. So, I just thought (hoped) that that was all it was. We continue to pray for the Lord's will in all of this as He knows best what Andrew needs.

After our visit with Dr. Mazow we headed for the Children's Museum which Kathlena called the Zoomeum because we generally go to the Zoo after our visits. Since, Mom is 6 months along and we are in the middle of a heat wave I thought the Museum would be a better choice for us. So, we had our usual picnic lunch with Daddy at Herman Park then Daddy dropped us off at the Museum while he went to call on customers downtown.

The museum was packed! I couldn't imagine so many kids in one place. There were many day camp groups there as the Children's Museum had opened some new exhibits. We had fun. It was Andrew and Kathlena's first time to go to this museum and Emily and J.Michael had not been in years so it was a treat for all of them. I was so proud of Andrew and Kathlena as they did so well with all the excitement to stay right close by and not get distracted and wander off. I don't think we could have done this last summer for sure! It was a real testimony to their growth and training and I was so blessed. We had a great time.