What's Been Going On...

Life in our household has been pretty crazy this past month or so. We had been monitoring Evie's eyes because they seemed to be crossing. Our pediatrician had recommended we watch it and see if it improved, but around the time of her birthday I got sick of waiting and scheduled an appointment. We saw a nurse practitioner in the same practice and found that the crossing was severe enough for a referral to an opthamologist.

At the opthamologist appointment he ran some tests (not easy on a baby!) and thought she might have Duane's Syndrome, where the nerve to one of the eyes never forms so the other eye's nerve tries to compensate, but isn't able to help the non-nerve eye to turn out all the way. He said it could also be congenital crossing, which would require surgery. He told us to patch the stronger eye to try to get the other eye to have to work more and therefore, strengthen. So off to Target we went to buy Junior size Occlusors (basically, a band-aid style eye patch). She wore it an hour a day, daily.

At our most recent appointment the doctor felt that it was not Duane's, but congenital crossing. He prescribed glasses as a last resort before surgery. In some cases, glasses fix the crossing (I think the idea is that if a child is far-sighted, then as they have to focus close-up, the eyes go crossed, so with glasses to correct the farsightedness, they no longer cross their eyes). Hopefully this will fix things, but I think the doctor really feels that Evie will have to have one, perhaps 2 surgeries to correct her eyes. :o( We go back in about a month.

Believe it or not, we didn't take any pictures of Evie in her patch, so we will have to take a picture and post it later. Richard likes to say, "Aargg, Matey!" when she puts it on. Boys!! :oP We will also post a picture of her in her cute little glasses. It might be my imagination, but she seems more observant and to make eye contact more, so perhaps she is farsighted after all?? Time will tell, I suppose.

We are also a bit concerned because she is still not crawling (or walking or pulling up on her own). I feel a little less concerned about it lately because she is at least trying to crawl, whereas before (even a few weeks ago) she didn't even want to be on her belly. We see her pediatrician for a well visit tomorrow so I hope to get some definitive answers and we are considering calling in Early Childhood Intervention services (a government program where they come in and evaluate for free when kids seem to have motor or speech delays).

On another note, my mom was recently diagnosed with endometrial cancer and will be having surgery (a hysterectomy) on Wednesday. It is stage 1, so that is very good. The oncologist will also check other organs and lymph nodes during the surgery to be sure it hasn't spread. Friends have been so sweet during this time. I am so thankful for their kind words and prayers. What a blessing!! Mama will be staying with Richard and I for at least the first few weeks because the recovery from surgery is supposed to be pretty tough and my dad won't be able to take a lot of time off from work to take care of her. It will be neat to have the opportunity to help my sweet mom who is always so willing to help us out with Evie or sewing curtains for the living room, etc.!!

I think the stress of all this has left me on an emotional roller coaster so I haven't been great about keeping up with the blog. The Lord is definitely teaching me and shaping me, so for that I am very thankful. I am learning to lean on Him moment to moment. Emphasis on learning...I have definitely not arrived in this area. I am still very much the worrywart, trying to think through various scenarios and figure out how I will prepare myself if thusinsuch happens. Sigh. It gets pretty wearisome sometimes, so I hope I will learn to lay my burdens and cares on the Lord as He has commanded me to do.

Thanks for reading my long monologue! :o)