The Daily Hailey

Its been three months and two days since Dekker’s corrective eye surgery. If you remember, he had an appointment immediately the day after this surgery to make sure there was no sign of infection, and then four weeks later. Now, two months after that, we went in again, keeping a close watch on his peepers. I appreciate the attention to detail, and the diligence to want to catch any possible decline as soon as possible.

I got the kids ready and out the door on my own, and even arrived at the hospital early. It turned out to be convenient that way, since parking was a nightmare. I just drove around aimlessly until someone left the lot that I wanted to park in. When Dekker gets nervous, we often end up carrying him, and if I was going to have to carry him, our massive diaper bag, and Laela in her car seat, I wasn’t going to carry them any further than I absolutely had to!

We got up to the fourth floor and checked in without a single meltdown. Dekker loves the elevator, and he finally recognizes the hospital as a good place, so he was eager to find the toys.

Brady came just a few minutes behind us, and after a very short wait, we got into orthoptics for the preliminary tests.

Dekker floored us all today. This was probably the first appointment where he answered questions and participated knowingly in the tests. He said which animals he saw, he counted the rings on the stick, he made jokes, and he played a matching game! We have never done matching with him, and he picked up on it immediately. The woman running the tests would go stand at the far end of the room next to a tv displaying a row of shapes on its screen, and Dekker had a paper with the same shapes on it in front of him. She would point to a shape on the screen and he would point to the one that matched on his paper. He did awesome!!! He was completely adorable and smart and best of all, she said it seemed like he was doing great! She saw no turn in his eye, no flicker, no nothing. He used both eyes the same amount and had the same results with both. What a complete answer to prayer!

After orthoptics, we headed back to the waiting room. I gave him a snack I had packed secretly – grapes and apples – and he ate contentedly until it was our turn with Dr. Rubab.

She only really ran a few short tests, but she was very happy with how things were looking. Dekker was actually disappointed when it was time to get up out of the chair. But before we left, I asked her about something that has been weighing heavily on me. I don’t know a lot about astigmatisms, but at our last appointment, we had been told that meant Dekker had blurry vision and always would. However, at my last appointment, I learned that I have one, and its almost exactly the same as his! For those who understand how these prescriptions work, his astigmatism is 1.00 and mine is 0.75, so both incredibly slight, but my vision isn’t blurry. Never has been. I asked if he would ever have a chance of being out of glasses, or if his vision would be blurry forever. She seemed a bit surprised, but brought me over to her computer and explained everything to me. She said the shape of his eye will likely not change very much anymore, so he’ll always have the astigmatism, but its sooo small, it likely won’t affect him at all. She said the prescription itself is based more on the size of the eye, and that will change significantly over the next several years. She is very careful with the way she speaks, but she says he has a very good chance of being out of glasses one day! I was very excited and asked “So maybe as a teen?” and she said “No, more like 5, 6, 7, something like that.” Crazy, right?!?! I know I can’t hold my breath for it, nor do I expect it will happen immediately, but there is a solid chance 😀 I am so thrilled at that possibility! Even if his eyes don’t get completely better, his prescription is so much lower than I thought it was, and it should only get better and better.

Dr. Rubab clarified with me briefly today, “You’re not using any drops, are you?” I said no. No drops, no patching, nothing. Her response was “Oh, of course no patching…” before she went back to Dekkers exam. I know it could always come back up, but its nice to know we’re nowhere near needing that right now. What a relief!

I am just blown away by today. I was pleasantly surprised that Dekker interacted with the doctor and the orthoptist. He knew so much and answered questions confidently. He didn’t have any breakdowns, and was very polite. I was also so thrilled to be given such encouraging answers and hope for things to keep moving and changing for the better. How great would it be if this whole debacle could just be a distant memory? That would feel. So. Good. It can happen!

I am SO incredibly proud of you, Dekker Thomas. You are such a little man. I can’t even believe you!