We had a postoperative followup with both of her surgeons and the audiology clinic. As always, she enjoyed riding the elevators all over the hospital. She did get very quiet when seeing the cleft palate surgeon because I do think she remembered him and what he meant (pain) to her. After we just talked and he let her slide down the dentist chair instead of sitting in it! He peaked in her mouth with the mirror while she sat with me and that was all he needed. He told me he was extremely pleased with how it looks. The palate is raising up like it should (I never thought of it as doing that, but I look in there almost everyday), and the scars are looking like they should and no stretching or pulling. He was also happy to hear her making so much noise and asked about her speech progress as a whole. We also talked about her nasal regurgitation. I told him how it only comes out of one nostril now and only when it is something more liquidy. He explained that her swallowing and chewing will take a long time to change as she was so used to holding her tongue one way to help her swallow and she is probably still doing it. He is confident it will change and remedy the regurgitation.
Next we headed off to the ENT Clinic and met with the surgeon who put in her tubes. She didn't really care about his presence because he never looked in her mouth! The tubes were perfect and they had no concerns. We will see them again in 6 months and then they might even be able to come out! Then she can have bubble baths again because the soap won't cling to the plastic tubes and cause ear aches from clogging up as it dries!
Lastly, we had a hearing check that was finally successful. I laughed when the ENT Clinic told me her files from the other office we have tried to get her hearing checked said she wasn't cooperative. The kid normally sits on my lap and makes no sound. The first time she cried because it turned out she had a slight ear infection. At the followup she did't make a peep but they didn't have adapters that were small enough to fit in her ears. She would sit there and as the test was going on the tube would slowly work its way out and fall in her lap. The third attempt was the same with the tubes not fitting. The woman even said to me that they didn't have tubes small enough to stay in her ears and then made a followup for a month later (I remember thinking, how are the tubes going to fit in a month if they don't fit now!?). I missed the fourth attempt and they never called to say I missed it or make a followup. It is the same office that I go to every 3 weeks for speech pathology but I'm starting to wonder if they actually scheduled that last attempt or if I imagined that phone call! Either way, this time she sat on my my lap perfectly and didn't flinch at the tubes being put in (ones that were small enough because they didn't budge once they were fit) and she passed with flying colours. The woman said the volume response is just below ideal but she thinks it is because her canals are so narrow because everything else was perfect. This was good to know to finally have a baseline for her hearing!
So, that was 6 months from the last visit. We will probably go to 12-month intervals after the next one. She is best case scenario for them all! (Us too!)
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
5 and 7
Well, just got back from the doctor's office. It is official that she grew 7 inches and gained 5 pounds in a year hahaha! Wish I only gained 5 pounds in a whole year...
Monday, September 22, 2014
A Whole New World
We picked up her glasses today and it was amazing to watch her response. I was so curious to see what would happen because she can see things, just not clearly. As soon as they were on and she took a look at the lady who just fitted her, she started nodding her head up and down to see through and then above the lenses. We all giggled. The lady then took the glasses off because she realized the arms were too long. She couldn't find shorter arms, so they are on order, but she got a head strap and put the glasses back on her and made it so they wouldn't slide down her bridge-less nose. She ran around a bit and then she stood up and it kind of dawned on her that it was different on a bigger scale. Her mouth actually dropped open and she was looking around the store as a 'big picture' for the first time. SO ADORABLE! We went for a walk in the mall and went under the skylight and when she was looking she said, "woooOOOOoow!" because she could see the details of the clouds through the skylight! She also ran to a store that had a shelf of stuffed animals on a front display - like, ran from far away because she saw what it was! I let her play with those for a bit and then wanted to take her to the book store. She sat on the ground and opened a book and did the "wooOOOOooow!" again. She doesn't always do this for books but I cannot say whether it was for the new clarity and being able to take in a page as a whole or if it was because there was a shiny spot on the page; either way, she didn't keep hitting herself with the pages while she looked at the book because she wasn't as stooped over!
Now, after a whole weekend, I can say that they have made a bigger difference then I imagined. She giggles and laughs SO much more now - which I adore! She can see our expressions better and mimics so much more. She stood under a tree on a walk and just stared up (I'm assuming noticing the layers of leaves for the first time), she saw all the fun stuff at the waterfront at the same time Mike and I saw it, she pays attention to things for a longer time in general! She watched the small tv we have in the upstairs for the first time ever! I took her downstairs and she sat in a chair instead of standing directly in front of the big screen - not for a very long time though. What can I say? Old habits die hard! She skyped with my family and giggled more at their faces because she could see them clearer too (and also at the little face of her in the corner because THAT was now like looking in a mirror for her). She has not tried to take them off herself since we left the store on Friday morning. She asked once to have them off but when I shot her down she just kept doing what she was doing without a fuss. I think it's the strap on the back of her head pushing her hair that bothers her more than the actual glasses. She has not fought us once when we put them on after waking her up in the morning or at nap. AND, my fav, she can actually lay in bed beside me while we read bedtime stories. She doesn't have to sit up each time I turn the page to see the smile on Gerald's face that she knows is there! Then, she also doesn't cause a stink when we take them to say goodnight. It has been an absolute joy to watch her with her new eyes.
(crap, I thought I'd get through that whole thing without tearing up and there I go on the last sentence.)
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Vindicated!
I got a call yesterday from the Eye Clinic saying they had a cancellation today and could we make it at 9:45? Heck yes, we can! I have been waiting for this because as she grows more and does not stop looking at things close up, I feel more and more that she needs glasses. I know she can see far away shapes, like, she knows a slide is a slide... but she never really looks at things unless she can hold it to her nose.
Long story short - she needs glasses... big time. The doctor looks in her right eye with a lens and says, "oh my, are you ever myopic!" She is -7.5 in one eye and -5 in the other and then has astigmatism on top if it. This kid has NEVER seen anything in the distance in focus! I am SO excited to take her for her first walk or to even look at a book and not have her bend right over it and block the text! They said kids with myopia are usually the ones that keep their glasses on without trouble because they are actually SEEING now! This is also something that she will live with forever so it's best that we got on top of it now. I dropped her prescription off and got her fitted for baby glasses on the way back from the appointment and they should be ready in a week and a half! I'm hoping that by next weekend my baby girl will see!
Long story long... and it's gonna be long because I find it SO fascinating!
First of all, I was worried she was going to be cranky because she, like me, is not a morning person. She wants to be left alone to enjoy her coffee (cereal) and then do something quiet (read) until she wakes up. I got her a muffin and she was fine. Even hugged the muffin before eating it. When we get to the hospital she is excited because she remembers the elevators - better than remembering the surgery! Ha! We ride up 6 floors, register, and after a quick "WooOOOOOwwww!" at the fish tank and before she can even play with the toys they are calling her name. We go into the room and I sit her on my lap in 'the chair' and she gets quiet. I notice the Sesame Street finger puppets and start playing with her while the optometrist came in to do the initial evaluation.
I was really keen to know what they did since I knew babies can't say their answers... she started with pupil reaction to light, then to reacting to light from different angles. She did some focus testing by having her look through a prism at an image that has now been split into 2 images to see if she flicks focus back and forth between the two. She had a flashlight with an end that had 1 one light, 2 green lights, and 1 red light in a diamond pattern and put on the red-green glasses and had her point to the lights (she even counted them aloud). She did distance testing by turning a television on and off. She had these slats that were grey with a square that was made of grey and white lines located somewhere on it. The slats started with very wide lines, making the square very obvious. She would (blind to the location herself so as not to unintentionally suggest the answer) flip the slat over and have Dania point to the square. She nailed it. LOL! They also did some perception testing with 3D images... Dania didn't like those very much, or, at least, wouldn't touch the images. She would say her sound for 'ball' and point but not actually try to touch the 3D ball - I guess that happens a lot with little kiddos. She did some other light testing that I have no idea what it did because I saw the back of her head and it didn't look any different from the initial testing - it might have been different coloured lights and the pupil reaction. So, all in all? This part took about 30 minutes and she sat so well and they kept commenting on that. They also took an oral history from me and I told them about the adoption and that it was noted in her info given to us. I told them that I have always noticed she looks at things closely and doesn't pay attention to things farther away for very long and that my gut said it wasn't attention span because she will sit and play with her Leapfrog reader for an hour! I told them how it was my family doc that referred us to the eye doctor and how we saw him once, he told us to come back with the drops, and then he told us she was near sighted and referred us to the people that can deal with kids properly. Then she had to put the dilating drops in her eyes. Enter the tears - that I think were more from boredom and sitting still than anything. Now we had to go to the waiting room and wait for the drops to kick in.
She played, happily, and seemingly unaffected by the drops. She was not walking weird or seemingly having a messed up depth perception from the drops. She did disregard the books quickly and opted for staring at the fish tank at length. After about 30 minutes she asked me for Pocoyo. Now, this is a show on youtube that we watch sometimes and I wasn't about to say 'no' when I had no idea how much longer we were going to be. I also knew her vision must be screwy by now so I pull out my phone, find the show, press play, and her name is called. So, we are now going into this next part with an anticlimactic Pocoyo experience...
She was so good! It blew my mind her patience! She wouldn't have this for me at home but she is also an inquisitive girl and was fascinated by the new activities going on close to her. She did ask for Pocoyo in between every lens trial though! So, this new session involved the Ophthalmology fellow and a student. They were both so nice and very patient and clearly used to working with kids (automatically lowered their chairs, put smiles on their faces and raised the tones of their voices). This was the part where an adult sits behind the big lens machine and looks at the alphabet chart (I know it has a real name) and tells the doc if number 1 or number 2 is more focused. For a kid? They have mum sit Kid on her lap and gently keep her head forward (I say gently because I'm sure for the 3 times I had to adjust Dania that others have had to do 30 or just brace their child's head). I think she has this fear/reverence for doctors. She has a love/hate relationship with them because the first bit of her life was composed of a lot of poking and prodding - especially in the mouth and ears - but has now experienced long-term results and 'get's it.' Anyway! He started with her right eye, chose a lens strength that was to an extreme (I don't know what extreme!) and holds it to her eye with a light scope and looks at her inner eye reaction. This is where he exclaimed, "oh my! Are you ever myopic!" He then tries a bunch of different strengths and just like with adults, flicks back to the one he thinks is right while going to extremes and ever-so-slight variances. He finds the one he thinks is good and then starts on the adjustment for her astigmatism. After about 15 minutes, he finds the right combo for the right eye. This whole time she has sat so still on my lap and listened to every direction from the doctor. He would say, 'oh, chin down,' and I knew he was talking to me but she would then put her chin to her chest and he would laugh, 'oh, not that much!' and she would bring it up a little. He kept telling her how smart she was. Made me really proud! It takes a bit longer for the left eye because she's done this all before now. He starts getting her eye to look at the right spot by saying, 'HEL-looooo!' To which she immediately says it back. The student is laughing off to the side and making his hand creep up on her and making faces - he's going to be good with little ones! After about 35 minutes total, the doc has the right combo and writes me a prescription and we sit and chat about what it means and I ask all my questions about what it was he was actually doing so I understood it enough to tell it here! At this point, I do put Pocoyo on the phone for her to watch! They laughed at the dancing that ensued.
The fellow told me that this was something that couldn't be corrected. She will need glasses forever. Ok, no big deal. I had initially thought it might be correctable but I am not as concerned with her keeping them on because she will wear sunglasses outside for a long time and I wear glasses and she points that out a lot. I think about how my prescription has a similar astigmatism to Dania's but that my eyes are 7 times and 5 times better than hers and I get major headaches if I sit at the computer without them. What does she get?!?! It makes me wonder if she has ever seen far away to understand near and far!? After a lot of my questions were answered, the fellow goes to get the ophthalmologist and she comes in to talk to us.
She sits down and immediately begins asking about Russia. What region is she from? How much history do you know? What tests did she have over there? How come it took so long to get here? Okay, the last one? Not a Russia thing... that was the Eye Clinic and Canadian health care system. I made sure she knew that (and please, I am not knocking it at all! I LOVE our healthcare. I just felt slightly off put because of this sudden barrage of questions and nothing to do with the eyes!). She takes a big breath after she asks what age we brought her home and then tells me that was the same age her son was when she brought him home from Moscow! HOLY MOLY! Seriously?!?!?! What are the odds?!?! It's been 6 years for her now since her adoption but as soon as she told me that she instantly warmed up and seemed so involved and concerned. She explained that her region was important because of ethnic physical features (wider set eyes, flatter bridge of nose, almond eyes) to be taken into consideration but also because she was curious about our knowledge of hereditary syndromes. It's none, by the way. She said that there are syndromes from that region related to cleft palate and myopia that would be worth considering for the long run. She asked if I would be okay with a referral to genetic medicine for testing to see if the 2 problems are genetically related or not. I have no problem with that! I was excited when she said it! So fascinating! I do a lot of genetic transcriptions in my job and was giddy at the thought of being part of this unique world; moreover, it would almost be like being given a link to her past that we don't know! This would be something that, if relevant, would affect any biological offspring and her long-term healthcare. Such syndromes, the most obvious being Stickler's syndrome, which I had heard of (thank you new job!) can progress quickly without intervention and treatment (aka, eyesight and hearing getting worse without aid) and can affect connective tissues and cause joint pains/arthritis in the long run. Despite what it can cause, just knowing can help with future healthcare needs. I have to wonder if this ophthalmologist hadn't adopted from Russia herself if Dania's file would have stuck out in her immediate thoughts like this (remember, only yesterday she was given the file)? I mean, I do not doubt that this connection would have been brought up eventually by one of the many specialists but now that we have these 2 conditions to work with and a woman who recognized the regional relevance, we have a starting point for possible special action. SO DANG FASCINATING!
So much of Dania has seemed 'meant to be' in this process... this is a scientific aspect that I never could have predicted!
As I said, we went to the glasses store that was recommended as specializing in little ones and would also consider the flat bridge of her nose and we had frames within 10 minutes of walking into the store. I didn't expect a wide array of choice with what is considered 'baby' frames. I got to choose dark copper versus gold and then the colour of her plastic arm cover that wraps around her ears. Either way, the store kept proclaiming how good she was and she only had to sit for a total of 2 minutes (three times with different widths of glasses and twice for the pupil distance measure). At this point, she was asking for the ice cream I promised her for good behaviour. HAHAHAHA! We did get a pumpkin pie blizzard to share, but we also walked away with the order of glasses to be delivered in a week and a half! SO EXCITING! Seriously, like, beyond exciting to think that she will really see for the first time because she was worse than I had thought! She won't have to stop and work to see things and will be able to catch things at a glance or in dimmer lighting! WOW! I can't wait! I can't even explain to her what she is about to experience! HOLY MOLY!
Long story short - she needs glasses... big time. The doctor looks in her right eye with a lens and says, "oh my, are you ever myopic!" She is -7.5 in one eye and -5 in the other and then has astigmatism on top if it. This kid has NEVER seen anything in the distance in focus! I am SO excited to take her for her first walk or to even look at a book and not have her bend right over it and block the text! They said kids with myopia are usually the ones that keep their glasses on without trouble because they are actually SEEING now! This is also something that she will live with forever so it's best that we got on top of it now. I dropped her prescription off and got her fitted for baby glasses on the way back from the appointment and they should be ready in a week and a half! I'm hoping that by next weekend my baby girl will see!
Long story long... and it's gonna be long because I find it SO fascinating!
First of all, I was worried she was going to be cranky because she, like me, is not a morning person. She wants to be left alone to enjoy her coffee (cereal) and then do something quiet (read) until she wakes up. I got her a muffin and she was fine. Even hugged the muffin before eating it. When we get to the hospital she is excited because she remembers the elevators - better than remembering the surgery! Ha! We ride up 6 floors, register, and after a quick "WooOOOOOwwww!" at the fish tank and before she can even play with the toys they are calling her name. We go into the room and I sit her on my lap in 'the chair' and she gets quiet. I notice the Sesame Street finger puppets and start playing with her while the optometrist came in to do the initial evaluation.
I was really keen to know what they did since I knew babies can't say their answers... she started with pupil reaction to light, then to reacting to light from different angles. She did some focus testing by having her look through a prism at an image that has now been split into 2 images to see if she flicks focus back and forth between the two. She had a flashlight with an end that had 1 one light, 2 green lights, and 1 red light in a diamond pattern and put on the red-green glasses and had her point to the lights (she even counted them aloud). She did distance testing by turning a television on and off. She had these slats that were grey with a square that was made of grey and white lines located somewhere on it. The slats started with very wide lines, making the square very obvious. She would (blind to the location herself so as not to unintentionally suggest the answer) flip the slat over and have Dania point to the square. She nailed it. LOL! They also did some perception testing with 3D images... Dania didn't like those very much, or, at least, wouldn't touch the images. She would say her sound for 'ball' and point but not actually try to touch the 3D ball - I guess that happens a lot with little kiddos. She did some other light testing that I have no idea what it did because I saw the back of her head and it didn't look any different from the initial testing - it might have been different coloured lights and the pupil reaction. So, all in all? This part took about 30 minutes and she sat so well and they kept commenting on that. They also took an oral history from me and I told them about the adoption and that it was noted in her info given to us. I told them that I have always noticed she looks at things closely and doesn't pay attention to things farther away for very long and that my gut said it wasn't attention span because she will sit and play with her Leapfrog reader for an hour! I told them how it was my family doc that referred us to the eye doctor and how we saw him once, he told us to come back with the drops, and then he told us she was near sighted and referred us to the people that can deal with kids properly. Then she had to put the dilating drops in her eyes. Enter the tears - that I think were more from boredom and sitting still than anything. Now we had to go to the waiting room and wait for the drops to kick in.
She played, happily, and seemingly unaffected by the drops. She was not walking weird or seemingly having a messed up depth perception from the drops. She did disregard the books quickly and opted for staring at the fish tank at length. After about 30 minutes she asked me for Pocoyo. Now, this is a show on youtube that we watch sometimes and I wasn't about to say 'no' when I had no idea how much longer we were going to be. I also knew her vision must be screwy by now so I pull out my phone, find the show, press play, and her name is called. So, we are now going into this next part with an anticlimactic Pocoyo experience...
She was so good! It blew my mind her patience! She wouldn't have this for me at home but she is also an inquisitive girl and was fascinated by the new activities going on close to her. She did ask for Pocoyo in between every lens trial though! So, this new session involved the Ophthalmology fellow and a student. They were both so nice and very patient and clearly used to working with kids (automatically lowered their chairs, put smiles on their faces and raised the tones of their voices). This was the part where an adult sits behind the big lens machine and looks at the alphabet chart (I know it has a real name) and tells the doc if number 1 or number 2 is more focused. For a kid? They have mum sit Kid on her lap and gently keep her head forward (I say gently because I'm sure for the 3 times I had to adjust Dania that others have had to do 30 or just brace their child's head). I think she has this fear/reverence for doctors. She has a love/hate relationship with them because the first bit of her life was composed of a lot of poking and prodding - especially in the mouth and ears - but has now experienced long-term results and 'get's it.' Anyway! He started with her right eye, chose a lens strength that was to an extreme (I don't know what extreme!) and holds it to her eye with a light scope and looks at her inner eye reaction. This is where he exclaimed, "oh my! Are you ever myopic!" He then tries a bunch of different strengths and just like with adults, flicks back to the one he thinks is right while going to extremes and ever-so-slight variances. He finds the one he thinks is good and then starts on the adjustment for her astigmatism. After about 15 minutes, he finds the right combo for the right eye. This whole time she has sat so still on my lap and listened to every direction from the doctor. He would say, 'oh, chin down,' and I knew he was talking to me but she would then put her chin to her chest and he would laugh, 'oh, not that much!' and she would bring it up a little. He kept telling her how smart she was. Made me really proud! It takes a bit longer for the left eye because she's done this all before now. He starts getting her eye to look at the right spot by saying, 'HEL-looooo!' To which she immediately says it back. The student is laughing off to the side and making his hand creep up on her and making faces - he's going to be good with little ones! After about 35 minutes total, the doc has the right combo and writes me a prescription and we sit and chat about what it means and I ask all my questions about what it was he was actually doing so I understood it enough to tell it here! At this point, I do put Pocoyo on the phone for her to watch! They laughed at the dancing that ensued.
The fellow told me that this was something that couldn't be corrected. She will need glasses forever. Ok, no big deal. I had initially thought it might be correctable but I am not as concerned with her keeping them on because she will wear sunglasses outside for a long time and I wear glasses and she points that out a lot. I think about how my prescription has a similar astigmatism to Dania's but that my eyes are 7 times and 5 times better than hers and I get major headaches if I sit at the computer without them. What does she get?!?! It makes me wonder if she has ever seen far away to understand near and far!? After a lot of my questions were answered, the fellow goes to get the ophthalmologist and she comes in to talk to us.
She sits down and immediately begins asking about Russia. What region is she from? How much history do you know? What tests did she have over there? How come it took so long to get here? Okay, the last one? Not a Russia thing... that was the Eye Clinic and Canadian health care system. I made sure she knew that (and please, I am not knocking it at all! I LOVE our healthcare. I just felt slightly off put because of this sudden barrage of questions and nothing to do with the eyes!). She takes a big breath after she asks what age we brought her home and then tells me that was the same age her son was when she brought him home from Moscow! HOLY MOLY! Seriously?!?!?! What are the odds?!?! It's been 6 years for her now since her adoption but as soon as she told me that she instantly warmed up and seemed so involved and concerned. She explained that her region was important because of ethnic physical features (wider set eyes, flatter bridge of nose, almond eyes) to be taken into consideration but also because she was curious about our knowledge of hereditary syndromes. It's none, by the way. She said that there are syndromes from that region related to cleft palate and myopia that would be worth considering for the long run. She asked if I would be okay with a referral to genetic medicine for testing to see if the 2 problems are genetically related or not. I have no problem with that! I was excited when she said it! So fascinating! I do a lot of genetic transcriptions in my job and was giddy at the thought of being part of this unique world; moreover, it would almost be like being given a link to her past that we don't know! This would be something that, if relevant, would affect any biological offspring and her long-term healthcare. Such syndromes, the most obvious being Stickler's syndrome, which I had heard of (thank you new job!) can progress quickly without intervention and treatment (aka, eyesight and hearing getting worse without aid) and can affect connective tissues and cause joint pains/arthritis in the long run. Despite what it can cause, just knowing can help with future healthcare needs. I have to wonder if this ophthalmologist hadn't adopted from Russia herself if Dania's file would have stuck out in her immediate thoughts like this (remember, only yesterday she was given the file)? I mean, I do not doubt that this connection would have been brought up eventually by one of the many specialists but now that we have these 2 conditions to work with and a woman who recognized the regional relevance, we have a starting point for possible special action. SO DANG FASCINATING!
So much of Dania has seemed 'meant to be' in this process... this is a scientific aspect that I never could have predicted!
As I said, we went to the glasses store that was recommended as specializing in little ones and would also consider the flat bridge of her nose and we had frames within 10 minutes of walking into the store. I didn't expect a wide array of choice with what is considered 'baby' frames. I got to choose dark copper versus gold and then the colour of her plastic arm cover that wraps around her ears. Either way, the store kept proclaiming how good she was and she only had to sit for a total of 2 minutes (three times with different widths of glasses and twice for the pupil distance measure). At this point, she was asking for the ice cream I promised her for good behaviour. HAHAHAHA! We did get a pumpkin pie blizzard to share, but we also walked away with the order of glasses to be delivered in a week and a half! SO EXCITING! Seriously, like, beyond exciting to think that she will really see for the first time because she was worse than I had thought! She won't have to stop and work to see things and will be able to catch things at a glance or in dimmer lighting! WOW! I can't wait! I can't even explain to her what she is about to experience! HOLY MOLY!
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