Laser Treatment and Glaucoma

Reese and Mom in the suit she has to wear to bring Reese back into the OR (pre-laser)

Reese had another laser treatment on January 27. It was a real breakthrough procedure for us. Perhaps sadly, it was the first time my mom hasn't walked into recovery to Reese screaming bloody murder (don't let anyone tell you laser treatments don't hurt). Apparently, this time the appropriate amount of painkillers was used. If I remember right, she got 2 hits of morphine, plus Tylenol 3 to take home. Reese is 7 now, and more self-conscious, so I no longer post pictures of her soon after her laser just for the sake of posting them to show. If I had taken pictures for some other reason, that would be one thing.

We also had a bit of a scare with her glaucoma. The pressure in her eye was pretty high just before her laser, and so we really hit the eye drops, making sure to get them in as often as was prescribed (Reese is on 3 different ones). If the eye drops didn't work, we were looking at a daily pill to try to control her glaucoma, and if the pill didn't work...we were looking at surgery. She had 2 surgeries for glaucoma in China before she came home at 2.5 years, and thus far they have held up. They checked her pressure under anasthesia during her laser and it was in that grey area between normal and elevated. In the office a few weeks later, she was reading as normal. The doctor is content with where we're at right now. Reese has a thickened cornea and some scarring, so the doctor didn't really want to do surgery until it was absolutely necessary, and right now (and hopefully for a long time), it's just not necessary.

Reese has also gotten much better at riding her bike. She got her training wheels removed in November-ish, and in early January we got her a new bike as a belated Christmas present (pictured here is her new bike and Dad). She's doing very well with it.

She did however bring up the fact that on Reese's right eye, the bottom eyelash is rolled up and rubbing against her eye. We'd noticed this since we got her, but no optometrist or opthalmologist had mentioned it until now. Basically her eyelashes are parallel to her eyeball and rubbing against it. We're not sure how that's not uncomfortable, but it's all she's ever known. So we're looking at possibly surgery someday for that.