Eye Doc!

Ella had her first eye doctor appointment today. She has been followed by an ophthalmologist at both Stormont and at Childrens Mercy. At Stormont Dr. Koederwitz said that she had Optic Nerve Hypoplasia and would most likely have some vision impairments but would not know to what degree until she was older. Needless to say, I was heart broken. I spent HOURS walking around her crib or isolate seeing if she would track and it really seemed like she would. I just kept thinking that she had to have some good vision because she really seemed to look at things and respond. Whenever I called to check on her when I was not there, I would run through my list of questions and one being, what do you think about her vision? The consistent response would be that they think she does a good job with her vision. Then at Childrens, their ophthalmologist also checked her vision, but found a different situation. They thought that she just had smaller optic nerves but more on the side of normal. Yes she could have vision impairments, but she could also have normal vision, and again we would know more the older she got but that this could be the case for everyone, small optic nerves or not. During all of her time in the hospital between all the nurses, doctors, and family, we would walk circles around her crib, all the while saying that she was really tracking us! The doctor and I concluded that half the world could have small optic nerves, but they just don't know it because they did not get the mandatory newborn eye screening like all babies in the NICU.
Fast forward to today. My mom and I took Ella back to Dr. Koederwitz. She worked with Ella on her tracking. I could not see how she was doing since I was holding her. I asked if she was tracking and she told me that actually her tracking was really good for a baby that is only 3 months!!! All of those laps paid off!!! This girl did not lack in visual stimulation! She also reexamined her optic nerves and concluded that yes, they are small, but have been developing. Basically, she is normal. She did tell me that Ella is very far sighted but so is every other baby. She did not feel as though she really needed to see Ella again until she is a year. This is a whole different plan than back in September. We were all prepared for lots of follow ups since that was what we were told. At the end of the appointment, it was said to bring her back at a year just to see how her far sighted vision is developing, but otherwise, she is doing great!! This is such AMAZING news!!! I have been floating around all day!!!!