Bennett Eye Update

Yesterday Bennett had her pre-op appointment in Iowa City. Her doctor was concerned that her vision is not quite where it needs to be in order for him to preform the surgery. Basically, when her vision is not the same in both eyes, it means she is preferring one eye to the other... in other words her brain is not using both eyes all the time.

So, we still have the surgery scheduled (2 weeks from today) but we now have to go back next Monday for another check on her vision. Her doctor has asked that I patch full time/anytime she is awake. He also gave me a prescription for eye drops that blur the vision in her good eye, leaving her vision impaired so she has to use the bad eye to see. I asked for the drops because she has a tendency to take her patch off (that's why we are in this situation)... so whenever she does pull it off at least her bad eye is still having to work. We've been through 8 patches today already, but I am committed to doing all that I can in order to make this surgery happen in 2 weeks.

I am totally to blame for the situation we are in... I hate fighting with Bennett to keep the patch on and over the last 4 weeks I probably was patching 2 hrs a day (i was supposed to patch 2-4hrs) I have restraints, but I hate seeing her cry and fuss because she can't do anything.

Please pray for me, that I would have perseverance to see this through and that I would have though love for Bennett and not give up with the patch. And pray for Bennett that progress would occur in her bad eye and that the eye drops would not bother her mood too much.

Thank you all for your support!

Bennett is 15 months old!!

Bennett turned 15 months old ten days ago, on friday the 13th!! So I'm a little behind, but I wanted to update everyone on her stats and how things with her eyes are going!

Stat wise, she weighs 20lbs (20th%) and is 30inches tall (45th%). Everyday she learns something new... she is the silliest little girl I know!

A few words she can now say:

Bennett

mommy

daddy

hi... bye

hi dad

cake

juice

night night

i did it

banana

eye

head

Bennett loves her blankies and bear... so much so, that nobody can hold them but her! She also loves her Mommy a bit aggressively at times... she screams if the boys sit on my lap and if I give Thaddeus a hug she tries to pull his arms off of me! Like most little girls she has a bit of an attitude and has already figured out that if she screams/yells when the boys take toys from her they'll get in trouble! But, mostly Bennett is just so silly... she likes to blow bubble with her mouth or make all kinds of silly sounds. In the last week she has really found her nose, actually her nostrils, and she enjoys walking around the house with her finger up her nose! (It's pretty darn cute, but something we are working on stopping!)

Last week Bennett had another eye appointment in Iowa City. This time my mother-in-law came with me, and I was so glad to have a little extra help!! We were able to schedule Bennett's surgery for October 12th!! Her eye is so close to be the same vision as the other, that they let us schedule!! I am so excited to have a date and be able to plan a bit! We still need to patch until the surgery date, but only 2-4hrs a day. She has a pre-op appointment 2 weeks before the surgery where they make sure her vision is still were they want it, so please be praying that the patching continues to work and we can go ahead with the surgery!

It was great to talk with her doctor and ask questions about the surgery and things we should expect afterwards. There is a 30-40% chance she will need further surgery to fully correct (or at least mostly correct) her eyes.

Bennett is growing up so quickly!! We love life with our cute pigtailed girl!!

Bennett is 14 months old!

Bennett turned 14 months old two days ago, so I wanted to give an update on all the fun things she is doing and how things are going with her eyes!

Bennett started walking about a month ago and has not stopped since! She is so good at standing up without holding onto things... once she gets up she tots around and kind of keeps up with the boys! She is our little climber! Many times a day I find her standing on the top step of the boys' bunk bed or sitting on one of the couches all by herself... she is always so happy when she does it herself!

Bennett loves to eat!! Some of her favorites are bananas, meat, pasta, carrots, broccoli, crackers, chocolate, and ice cream!

One of my most favorite things about Bennett is that she loves to cuddle... I absolutely love her hugs and kisses and cuddle times on the couch! She has a little brown bear that her Aunt Lindy gave her the day she was born that she just adores... she carries her around hugging her and patting on its back... so cute!

I also am in love with her hair... the longer it gets the more curls she gets.... I love playing with it! I will definitely be waiting a long time to cut it!

Bennett waves hi and bye, gives high fives, hugs, kisses, and also signs some words (please, more, thank you, and all done). She also has a growing vocabulary... whenever she says hi it always comes out hi dad, she also says all done, banana, and jabbers all the time!

Things are going really well with her eyes! Back in June we had her first appointment at the UofI Children's hospital. Basically the only way to fix her crossed eye is surgery, but in order to do the surgery her vision in both of her eyes need to be the same. At the first appointment she was not using her left eye (the crossed eye) at all... in other words her brain was not recognizing it, therefor not using it. We were told to start patching her right eye 6-8 hrs per day to strengthen the left eye. By putting a patch over the good eye we are forcing her brain to use the bad eye and make those connections so that when we do the surgery the connections are made and her brain won't ignore the fixed eye.

So we patched for 4 weeks and just had our second appointment on Monday. The Dr. is seeing really good progress!! She is using her left now, which means the patching is working!! We go back in 2 two and it sounds like her eye may be ready for surgery then!! Once her eye is ready we can schedule her surgery... it will be two or three months out (they are pretty busy at the UofI !) Thank you all so much for praying for Bennett and please continue to pray that this process would be successful! I will do my best to keep you all updated!

Bennett is 10 months!

Bennett turned 10 months old last weekend... it's crazy to think that she will be 1 in May! You'll notice that in the pictures she is not wearing her glasses since they are broken already... we didn't even have them for a week! Thankfully insurance covers broken glasses so we have a new pair on order.

We are in the process of getting a referral from her pediatrician for a second opinion on her eyes from the UofI hospitals. They have pediatric eye doctors, who we feel would be better suited for Bennett's eye condition. I liked the doctor we saw at The North Iowa Eye Clinic, but everyone in Iowa knows that the university is the best place to go. So there's a good chance that it will be June before we can actually get an appointment and start the process again. Until then, I will do my best to get Bennett to wear her glasses, but I will not be patching her eye... I have heard conflicting opinions on whether patching is really the best thing to do. Bennett has been sick a lot this winter! 3 ear infections since thanksgiving has made our nights very difficult! She is allergic to penicillin which means that finding a medication to treat the infections has been hard... she's been on a different med with each infection and they just don't seem to be working... right now we are on day 11 with her meds from a double ear infection and she is still showing signs of infection... pulling at her ears, fever, cranky, and not sleeping well at night. I am considering asking her pediatrician for a referral to get tubes in her ears... Conrad has them and her Dr even said that her chances of needing tubes is higher b/c they run in the family. I am at a total loss... my 10 month old doesn't sleep through the night b/c more often than not she is in pain! Her not sleeping through the night means nobody in our house sleeps good... We have a small 2 bdrm house and all the kids are in the same room with our room 10ft away. Any suggestions or advice on what I should do to help her ears and her sleeping?? I know that ear infection season is close to an end, but the fall is not that far away either and I don't want to be dealing with this all over again!

Beautiful Eyes

Glasses

Bennett started wearing her glasses today... It's been really rough, but I didn't really know what to expect so I suppose it can only get better. It's a huge adjustment for her to have something on her face and wrapped around her ears all the time. It probably doesn't help that both of her ears are infected right now too! This is a very hard adjustment for Thaddeus and I too. A big part of us just wants to say forget the glasses and let the surgery do all the fixing, but I know that is unwise. It's hard to understand how an eye doctor can come to the conclusion that a 10 month old baby needs glasses... I guess that's what they went to school for for huh? Needless to say this is very difficult for us, but we want whats best for Bennett and her vision so I am determined to get her to wear the glasses. Right now when I look at her in the glasses I think she looks funny not at all like my little baby girl, but I know that after some time passes Bennett will still be the same Bennett even with glasses. She does look cute, but it just breaks my heart right now. Please pray for Bennett and me during this transition. I'm trying to have a good attitude and be the strong mommy that she needs me to be, and I know there are much worse things we could be going through right now and am reminded just how blessed we are.

Eye Doctor

Last week Bennett had an appointment with an eye doctor to see what we can do to fix her left eye. Since birth her eye has turned to the inside, making her crossed eyed. Dr Riley examined and dilated her eyes and came to the conclusion that the muscles in her left eye are weak and possibly did not develop correctly. So we will be patching her good eye everyday for 6-8 hours and she will be wearing glasses! I went and ordered the glasses last Friday so we should have them by the end of the week. We see Dr Riley again on April 21 to determine if the patch and glasses are helping to strengthen her eye. Overall he does not think that the glasses will help at all and that the patch could help a little, but Bennett will more than likely end up having surgery to correct the muscles. He wants to wait until she is between 12 and 16 months old before going ahead with any kind of surgery, but this type of eye condition will not get better with time. Bennett is taking to the patch just fine, she doesn't seem to mind it at all. Conrad thinks she looks like a pirate!