Thursday, July 28, 2016
Lego Camp
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Glaucoma
In November 2014 we took Eli to our local optometrist for eyeglasses. He was complaining that some things in school were blurry. No problem we figured. The doc did a full eye exam and prescribed basic lenses. He also said the eye pressure (IOP) was high. We set a follow-up appoint for a couple of weeks later, to see what the pressure did over time, and at an earlier hour (pressures can be higher in the morning). The pressure was elevated still, so he gave us some eye drops. I have glaucoma so all of this seemed "normal" and somewhat of a script. The drops worked for a while, but the pressure went back up. We tried different drops with the same pattern: down and then back up. All through this I was talking with my ophthalmologist whenever I had an appointment. Finally in November 2015, the optometrist had run out of ideas; I took Eli to see my doc. He concurred with everything we had been doing: the right things. But he was convinced that Eli's glaucoma was the pediatric variety, which he said would not respond sustainably to eye drops. He urged us to see a specialist.
By this point Eli was getting ready for AmeriCorps in a matter of weeks. With so much up in the air (my doctor had said he was pretty sure some manner of surgery was going to be required) we let AmeriCorps know what was up, and they deferred Eli for 6 months. In a sense that was a let down, but in another way it was "one less thing" to deal with.
We had a couple of visits in Durham with a new doc who tweaked the drops with no effect. She suggested "selective laser treatment" of the eyes, a way to increase outflow of fluid from the eye that was minimally invasive. Eli had that in March. We had to dawdle three months to see if the treatment worked. It didn't. The Duke doctor suggested a different person at the same center, a specialist in pediatric glaucoma (Eli had missed working with her initially by being 2 years older than her age limit). But we wound up seeing her in late May. She recommended a trabulectomy on the right eye (its pressure was somewhat high than the left the day of our visit). Too, we could try one eye and see if the procedure worked without putting the left eye through surgical trauma needlessly if it didn't.
Eli had the trab this past week. He went on Wednesday and had the surgery that afternoon. The surgery went well. Eli has been working at Rockmont this summer, living there full-time, so I was pretty sure his adherence to his medication protocols was spotty at best. Before the surgery, without drops for a couple of days his IOP was 37/31. (Good numbers for a glaucoma patient are between 10 and 20.) A follow-up the next morning revealed promising numbers. He came on home Thursday afternoon. We saw our local optometrist on Friday, and the numbers were good still 11/16. We'll see my doctor in a couple of weeks, and then back to Durham in early August.
Glaucoma has taken up a big chunk of our time this year: the ups and downs of the effectiveness of eye drops, and the trips to Durham. Eli has remained pretty even-keeled, but he admitted to a co-worker at camp on Monday that he was a little anxious. He's never had surgery before. We'll see how things go over the next few weeks.
By this point Eli was getting ready for AmeriCorps in a matter of weeks. With so much up in the air (my doctor had said he was pretty sure some manner of surgery was going to be required) we let AmeriCorps know what was up, and they deferred Eli for 6 months. In a sense that was a let down, but in another way it was "one less thing" to deal with.
We had a couple of visits in Durham with a new doc who tweaked the drops with no effect. She suggested "selective laser treatment" of the eyes, a way to increase outflow of fluid from the eye that was minimally invasive. Eli had that in March. We had to dawdle three months to see if the treatment worked. It didn't. The Duke doctor suggested a different person at the same center, a specialist in pediatric glaucoma (Eli had missed working with her initially by being 2 years older than her age limit). But we wound up seeing her in late May. She recommended a trabulectomy on the right eye (its pressure was somewhat high than the left the day of our visit). Too, we could try one eye and see if the procedure worked without putting the left eye through surgical trauma needlessly if it didn't.
Eli had the trab this past week. He went on Wednesday and had the surgery that afternoon. The surgery went well. Eli has been working at Rockmont this summer, living there full-time, so I was pretty sure his adherence to his medication protocols was spotty at best. Before the surgery, without drops for a couple of days his IOP was 37/31. (Good numbers for a glaucoma patient are between 10 and 20.) A follow-up the next morning revealed promising numbers. He came on home Thursday afternoon. We saw our local optometrist on Friday, and the numbers were good still 11/16. We'll see my doctor in a couple of weeks, and then back to Durham in early August.
Glaucoma has taken up a big chunk of our time this year: the ups and downs of the effectiveness of eye drops, and the trips to Durham. Eli has remained pretty even-keeled, but he admitted to a co-worker at camp on Monday that he was a little anxious. He's never had surgery before. We'll see how things go over the next few weeks.
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