Ephraim and I are home now. Ephraim seems to be back to his cute, cuddly, constantly-eating self.
The surgery accomplished what it was supposed to. That is, the surgeon removed the lens, which had a cataract and the scarred portion of the vitreous.
While he was doing the surgery, he saw that the retina is severely underdeveloped. He called in a retinal specialist who agreed with that assessment. As a result, they do not expect Ephraim to have vision in his left eye.
We have a followup appointment on Monday which will probably deal with the cosmetic issues of the problem - the cross-eyedness and the fact that the affected eye is smaller.
I've talked about this about as much as I can take, so please...
I will say that we are coping and we're not worried about Ephraim. We love him very much and are glad that he came through the surgery well. Of course, we're disappointed that vision is unlikely in the eye, but we know that people can live happy, healthy, good lives with vision in only one eye.
7 comments:
Try this:
Close your eyes and "see" your son as you would like him to be in 10 years. Hopefully, you're imagining a handsome, laughing boy who is happy and well-loved. Now open your eyes. Keep that vision of your son in your head, and that's exactly what he will turn out to be.
When my son was born, he was so sick that we were told that he was unlikely to survive. When he did survive we were told that he would likely suffer permanent brain damage. Now, 15 years later, he is a tall, broad-shouldered, handsome, charming, popular, athletic honor student.
Children are amazingly resilient. Ephraim will take all the love that you pour into him and will grow up so strong and wonderful that it will take your breath away.
Loved SuperRaizy's comment - totally agree!
I'm so glad the surgery went smoothly.
My grandfather lived his entire life with vision in just one eye - and that one with extremely poor sight and color-blindness. Didn't stop him from raising a beautiful family, running a successful business, or traveling the world.
A friend's little girl (now 7) also has vision in only one eye so to protect her good eye she often wears clear glasses, just as a precaution.
With a strong loving family behind him there is no limit to what Ephraim can achieve.
I effectively have vision in only one eye and its limited me minimally. (I've got severe amplyopia and my non-used eye is legally blind - with glasses that eye is improved only to 20/350 or 20/400 vision)
I even played field hockey while in high school despite my slightly limited visual field. Growing up this way since birth, my right (good) eye has more than learned to compensate (and I don't have 20/20 vision there either - i'm corrected to something like 20/80 or so on the best of times). My eye drs have always said that if you have to have eye damage, better from birth since the brain is an amazingly adaptive tool and it truly does learn to compenstte - and i don't know what i'm missing so i don't think its anything at all.
Hoping only good things for Efraim and you all
shoshana
Glad you're home and you've all survived.
Ephraim is lucky to have you for a mom.
Glad to know that he, and you, are ok. Thanks for sharing.
I have a cosusin (aged 60ish now) who can only see with one eye. She went to college and, among other things, became a teacher. I'm sure Ephraim will do fine, especially with all the love and support he gets from his family.
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