***WOW! I can't believe how many emails I have been getting asking "HOW on earth we knew Annie needed glasses?" Here's the full story:Back in October Annie had what appeared to be a little bruise under her right eye. We watched it for a while, but when it didn't seem to go away - just to be safe, I took her in to see Dr. Melissa. At that time, we thought it might be an internal stye, and she had a few days of ointment to help clear it up. But after about a week of treatment, and no results, we decided to see an eye doctor. The first eye doctor we visited took one look and started making some phone calls (this was late on a Friday afternoon of course) - she immediately sent us across town to see a pediatric opthamologist in Naperville, Dr. Oesterle. We slithered in as the last appointment and it was there that we found out Annie had a "capillary hemangioma" -- it was a guess at the time, but judging by the fact that Annie also had two other tiny hemangiomas on her body, it was very likely that it was indeed a capillary hemangioma. Capillary hemangioma is essentially a harmless tumor, they're sometimes called strawberry hemangiomas, or infantile hemangiomas...they occur in about 2% of babies, they typically grow until the baby is about a year old, and then slowly begin to recede, and will likely be just a faint mark by the age of 2. Generally these hemangiomas/birthmarks, are on the neck (sometimes called a 'storkbite') - which Annie has one of those...and a tiny one over her butt cheeks ;) BUT of course, when one of these hemangiomas is in the EYE - it posses a much bigger problem.
Sooo...since October we have been seeing the pediatric opthamologist on a regular basis to make sure the hemangioma isn't getting too big, and to make sure it is not affecting Annie's vision. The opthamologist tests Annie's vision much like an adult is tested. Her eyes are dilated, and then checked with the fancy lights and lenses (I've never had glasses, this is a whole new experience for me.) At first it was found that she had a slight astigmatism in her eye, but good thing was, she also had it in her "good eye" so her vision was even. But by the next visit, Annie's vision had started to become uneven, her "bad eye" was becoming more nearsighted than her "good eye" - and we had to start patching her good eye for two hours a day. This was to encourage her to use her bad eye, otherwise at this young stage of development, her brain would essentially shut down vision from the bad eye in favor of the clearer vision from the good eye -- resulting in a lazy eye. So we made it through the holidays, keeping up with her patching schedule quite well, and were hoping for good news at the next checkup.
However, at Annie's most recent checkup, it was found that the vision in the bad eye was continuing to deteriorate to a level that warranted glasses - So we've been instructed to keep up with the eye patching one hour a day, and she is to wear her glasses "all day, every day"....which I'm doing my best to adhere to, but we're talking about a 6 month old here ;)
So, why not just remove this darn hemangioma? Definitely my first thought...however, we've been told it's best to let these take their own course. Unless the hemangioma grows so large that it starts to cover her eye or cause bigger problems, it is best to avoid surgery on the eye, especially at her age. So we wait, we watch....and we tell her how cute she is in her glasses.
Aren't you glad you asked ;)
ps. the hemangioma is NOT galactosemia related...Annie is just THAT lucky ;)
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