Good news!

The boys finally went to the eye doctor after several re-sechedules due to the weather. Ethan had been complaining for months that his "eye hurt" and would always point to his left eye. And Aiden goes for regular eye checkups every 3 months to monitor his vision and check for signs of increased pressure on his brain, which can be seen if the optic nerve changes in size or if his eye movement decreases.

Ethan's vision was perfect - no issues at all. Dr. Fishman asked if he got frequent ear infections and, yes, he does. She said that sometimes the pain from ear infections can migrate to behind the eyes - makes sense. So now I will try to pay attention to when he's complaining about his eye - I've never put the two together before, but now it might be another way I can gauge if he's developing an ear infection. Good to know.

Aiden just blew her away. She is one of the only and one of the best pediatric eye specialists in the area, so chances are if a child has a syndrome they are referred to her. That means she has seen a couple of kiddos with Apert Syndrome before. Now Aiden is on the more mild side when it comes to his head and facial characteristics that are a part of Apert, so I would bet that the other kids she has to compare him to were probably more severe, but she was amazed at how straight his eyes were, how very little they protruded and how well he moved them and focused. She found no problems at all aside from mild strabismus (his left eye turns in when focusing up close), which she just wants to watch to make sure it straightens itself out in the coming months.

Most importantly - no indications of pressure from looking at his optic nerve! When we first started researching doctors, one local doctor said that they routinely do the first head surgery on these kids at 6 months old. I was a little worried about doing something so major so early, and once we met Dr. Fearon, he had an entirely different opinion. Dr. F only operates on the head before 15 months of age IF and ONLY IF there appears to be a problem or any pressure that would inhibit the proper growth of the brain. Even though we felt more comfortable with Dr. F's assessment, we were still nervous about the variance in the two doctors plans. Ultimately we chose to have Aiden treated by Dr. Fearon - but a small part of me was worried that if the other doctor was right, and we put off the first head surgery but then missed something that would cause damage later, I would never forgive myself. Luckily, in our case, Dr. F watched Aiden closely and with the recurring eye appointments as back-up, our decision to wait on the head surgery has been spot on. This is a huge relief!

Anywho - Aiden's 1st birthday party is tomorrow and I really need to get moving to get some things done around the house. So I'm off!