These Eyes

Milo came through his eye surgery this morning with flying colors!

He drank 2 glasses of apple juice and ate a whole banana in the recovery room. Once we got home he slept off the anesthesia for about an hour, and then the Wonderboy himself bounced around happily until bedtime like nothing ever happened! In fact he was in a particularly great mood and full of spunk.

His eye alignment looks so much better! The doc adjusted a muscle in the corner of his eye to allow the eye to move outward, closer to center. The doc slightly under-corrected it on purpose because over the next few years the eye will have a tendency to drift further outward. So in a few years it should look "perfect." But it looks great to us now, and if you weren't specifically evaluating his alignment you'd never notice. His eyeball is fairly red and bloody in the corner right now. It will turn from red to orange to yellow, to finally back to white over the next couple of weeks as he heals -- just like a bruise.

The doc says Milo has about 20/400 vision in his left (bad) eye. It is mostly peripheral vision because the retinal fold is in the center, so he doesn’t see anything in the center. His right eye is totally fine.

Interesting NEW news --- and a warning to parents out there: The doctor has a new theory that that the retinal fold might NOT be something Milo was actually born with. He thinks something caused it. This is because there is some scar tissue on the eye, which is what has pulled on the retina, causing it to fold. (Imagine a contact lens or piece of circular fabric being stretched until it creases.) This impaired the eye's vision, and over time the eye crossed inward from lack of use.

So what caused the scar tissue? He thinks it might have been a parasite named Toxocara Canis (roundworm), which can invade the eye causing Ocular Toxocariasis. There’s lots of info on the net about these. This is not an uncommon condition – even in America – especially for young children.

IF this is indeed what happened, this parasite is gone from Milo’s body, but as we mentioned before the damage to his retina is permanent and irreversible. There is no cure or fix for this -- not glasses nor patching will ever help. But as I mentioned in last post we're certain this will not stop Milo from living life to the fullest and achieving anything he sets his determined little mind to!

When the doctor told us this, a bell went off in our heads because he mentioned that children often get this from playing in SAND that is contaminated with dog or cat feces. The orphanage in Aqtobe has a HUGE sand pile that many of the children play in every day. Of course it was never covered and was certainly frequented by dogs and cats. I had to constantly stop Milo from eating the sand in the sandbox at our apartment complex in Aqtobe. He loves it – so I’m sure he ingested a lion’s share of sand living in the orphanage.

Here is a photo I took of his group playing in the sandpile at the orphanage:


The doctor drew some blood to test for the antibodies for this parasite. If it’s positive, then bingo. Milo’s follow up appointment is next Tuesday, Sept. 30th. We will know for sure then.

Even if this is not the determined cause of his vision loss and strabismus I wanted to share the information so everyone out there can either keep your children out of sandboxes or make sure they stay covered when not in use. I also let my friend, Alysa, know about it because she is in Aqtobe right now and she can relay the information to the orphanage workers and hopefully prevent this from happening to other children.

Thanks to everyone for all your concern and support! We are so relieved this part is over. I'll post photos of him with his his new eye alignment soon. (We can't find our camera.) I just wanted to give everyone the scoop first. In the meantime, enjoy this video. The song playing on the radio was one I sang to myself many times during all the waiting!

Pajama Dancing