July in a nutshell

Yikes! So much for blogging more during the summer months! We got back from our Amelia Vakay and hit the ground... walking. It was nice! We were busy-ish but not crazy busy. In July, we celebrated the fourth at home, very low key.

We attended the July Hydro Angels support group meeting.

Figured out why the car was leaking....

We traveled to my hometown for part 2 of my dental work.

Taking by my mom, at my parent's place

I saw my OB again which was awesome!! (and yes I realize I just !! a gyno appt but seeing the doc more than made up for the unpleasant part) She was super excited to see Addie and it was great to talk to her about the whole experience from diagnosis to delivery with a year's worth of hindsight and clarity.

Waiting in the waiting room with me for my appt

Grayson went with his dad and step mom on a 12 day trip to Disneyland in California. Lucky duck!


While Bubba was gone, Jack and I went on a movie date... except Jack insisted I call it a movie hang out cus in his words "we're not married!". Apparently only married people are allowed to go on dates.

We drove to San Antonio to meet another hydro family  (find their blog here) before they moved to DC ! It was so great to meet you Ashe Family!!

and to  tell my brother and his family bye before they moved to New Mexico.

Addie saw Dr. Rainey who wanted us to do drops again and start eye patching... yeah right. Addie can't stand the patch and half the time, won't leave it on!!

My niece Raychel and her mom came in to do some back to school shopping. Raych is now a freshman in high school and Jacob's a senior! Crazy!!

We finished up July by sitting glued to the TV watching the Summer Olympics. I've always been a fan of the Olympics and it was nice to share that with Grayson now that he's old enough to appreciate it. He really enjoyed watching the swimming competition!

Of course all of this was mixed in with our normal therapy appointments! I managed to watch several seasons of Grey's Anatomy on Netflix and Adam and I started watching Mad Men. Love summertime!

And of course... Miss Addison took her first steps on July 19th as I already posted here !

Pretty big July for us!! And what a wonderful difference from our last July when we found out Addie had been exposed to TB in the NICU and was overdraining and had to have a revision. Was that really ONE year ago??! Seems like just yesterday yet forever and a day ago.

The Eyes Have It

Addie saw her ophthalmologist Wednesday. We were there for nearly an hour before Dr. R made it into the exam room. I had a mini panic attack trying to pull up the strabismus album I has created on Facebook to show Dr. R what Addie's eyes are doing. Thankfully I was able to connect to the hospitals wifi since my 3G wasn't working. I wanted to have evidence, this time, at the ready ! I had compiled 50 pics going back to one month old to show the doctor if needed.

Addie's eyes were of course lining up beautifully prior to the doctor coming into the room. Dr. R said as much. I got the pictures out to show her and just then, thankfully, Addie's left eye "popped in" for just a second and Dr. R saw it.  Dr. R spent a lot of time looking at Addie's eyes from all angles. She would turn her head to the side to see if Addie could cut her eyes and look back at her, push her head down. She moved to Addie's left then her right, had her track things, etc.   Dr. R got all excited because she couldn't figure out what was going on. Naturally my child would be the unusual diagnosis!  She mentioned a possible issue with the sixth nerve which would be a botox treatment or accommodative esotropia. She decided she wanted to dilate Addie's eyes to check her eye sight. So a nurse placed drops in and Jack, who was trying his best to be a good boy in a chair in the corner, Addie and I went downstairs to get a snack at the coffee shop and kill 20 mins.

When we got called back the second time, Addie was looking at Dr. R with both eyes, one at a time, randomly. Whew. It was a relief that Addie finally performed her eye "tricks" for the doctor.  Dr R was nearly giddy or as near to giddy as she gets. She kept saying now she's doing it with her right. Oh now her left. Dr. R explained that Addie is farsighted. Something she could tell by the way the light reflects off the back of the cornea when her eyes dilated. What Addison is doing is crossing her eyes on purpose to clear up her blurry vision (which is the accomodative estropia). Pretty amazing really. The reason Dr. R was geeking out about it was that kids don't normally start compensating for this til 2 yrs old. And Addie has figured it out at 9 mths. 6 mths really because she was doing it at Duke. Amazing!

Dr. R doesn't feel this is related to her hydro at all, though I find it hard to imagine it's totally unrelated. It isn't a muscular issue though. It's her eyesight, just like my nearsightedness. Addie's inward eye turn is the equivalent of me squinting to see far away with my glasses off. Dr. R did mention that this can be genetic. A lot of crossed eyes years and years ago were a result of someone crossing their eyes as young children to correct their vision and as they grew older, the muscles tightened from lack of use and their eyes 'got stuck'. Interestingly, my great grandmother had a crossed eye. So perhaps that is where this is coming from.

Regardless of the cause, I'm thrilled to have a plan to help Addie see better and to align her eyes before the inward turn becomes permanent. And I'm doubly thrilled that the solution (at least for now) is not surgical.

Addison is getting glasses!!

How cute she will be!!

Melissa and I are taking her today to pick out her frames! It should take about two weeks for them to come in.

Pictures to come as soon as we get them in!


Blessings ~
Aimee