Ella's Exotropia Adventures

Right before the girls' first birthday, we noticed Ella's right eye started wandering to the outside.  In that blog post, I wrote this:

"I noticed one day that Ella's right eye has been doing some creepy things.  It wanders off and doesn't look straight onto what she's focusing on.  Fortunately, Uncle Gary is our resident eye doctor, and happily took a peek.  The good news: he wasn't able to replicate the problem, and thinks that she's good.  He also looked at a picture of her and explained how we can see the light reflecting in a photo to confirm that she's doing alright.  He thinks it's an optical illusion with the bridge of her nose.  The bad news: I'm not convinced.  Haha, crazy mom right here.  I totally get what he's saying, but it's so obvious to me.  So anyway, we'll just carry on with our normal lives, and I'll continue to be creeped out and silently worried that my baby is going blind.  Kidding."

Ohhhh, the foreshadowing.

Over that summer, daycare teachers noticed she preferred to stick to the shade and didn't love the sun.  I thought I noticed both eyes wandering.  We took her back.  He dilated her eyes - again: normal.

We jokingly called her "crazy eyes" (yep, like from Orange is the New Black).

Over the winter, both eyes really seemed to get worse/more obvious.  A few months ago, I sent a video to Uncle Gary, and he decided to ease my mind he would send us to a specialist.  We went for a visit, and I was completely expecting he would say she needed glasses.  I felt confident he would be able to see her eyes wandering, since she did it so often (Uncle Gary wasn't ever able to see it in action).  Well - he did see the Exotropia, and also told us the solution would be surgery.  Well, damn, that kind of rocked our world.  It wasn't a bad thing, and we weren't completely stressed out... we were just surprised.

Screenshot from a video I sent to Uncle Gary - see her left eye

literally one second later - her right eye

first visit to see Dr Wortham - Ella loved the toy area

happy girl Elle!  she's sporting sunglasses because they dilated her eyes, but is thrilled she got a lollipop (and an extra for Sydney)

At that appointment, Daniel and I disagreed on the percentage of time her eyes wander.  My guess was 40-50%, Daniel (eye roll) said 20-30%.  That's a pretty drastic disagreement.  Dr Wortham laughed at us, told us to agree on a percentage, and come back in 3 months time.  He said when she hit 50%, they would correct with surgery.  We asked daycare teachers, they all said percentages ranging from 40-60%.  Over that weekend, Daniel and I agreed on 60-70%.  We moved up her appointment.  By the time we went to the next appointment, she was a solid 80%.  We knew if it wasn't corrected, she would start to lose her vision.  Soooo... my psycho-mom-2016-post was really close to accurate.  Thank you, momma-gut.  Surgery was scheduled, and I freaked out a little.

So this past Tuesday, sweet Ella had strabismus surgery to fix her eyes.  I stressed a lot about it - the unknown, how would our 2 year old communicate how she was feeling, how will she heal, what's her pain level like, etc.  She.did.FANTASTIC!  She woke up that morning happy as a clam, was unhappy waking up from anesthesia (normal), but otherwise has been a total badass.  She has had minimal pain, and seems like such a happy little person. 

Playing with Daddy right after we signed paperwork stating she wouldn't operate heavy machinery, drive, or sign legal paperwork.  Against her wishes, we made her stick to the doctor's orders.

the nurses gave her this little toy bird and she was so happy - she was shouting "tweet tweet tweet" and flying it all around. 

snuggles from a scared momma

The nurses explained she would cry leaving us - and whaddya know - she didn't cry a single bit.  She impressed everyone by sitting on the operating table and allowing them to put the anesthesia mask on.  That's my girl!

and she's all done!  happy to have her back in my arms

She woke up super unhappy, but that's because of the anesthesia.  One of the biggest challenges was keeping her from rubbing her eyes.  Daddy eventually had a genius idea to put snacks/toys in her hands to help out.

that sad bloody tear :(

she happily sucked away on apple juice, and slept through us getting her dressed

gross, right?
on the way home!

Bloody tears and bloody nose drainage is, unfortunately, common :(

snuggled up in our bed for a nap (both of us!)

We had to be at the surgery center at 6:30 am.  Ugh.  My alarm was set for 4:45, but Sydney thought 4:15 was the perfect time to cry and need cuddles, so it was a veryyyyy long day.

My mom came over to wait for Sydney to wake up and took her back home with her.  We were all so happy when she came back home that night :)

back together again!

She did so, so, so good!  She didn't try to rub her eyes, barely needed medicine, and slept all night like a champ.

Sydney, on the other hand, has been -quite frankly- terrible.  She has cried, fussed, whined, and isn't sleeping.  I think it's a combination of all of the changes going on, being apart from Ella and us, and lots of teeth coming in.  Bless her sweet heart.

The next morning, we dropped Sydney off at daycare and took Ella in for a follow-up.  She's doing great! 

carrying around toys (and can't forget about our baby)

After her appointment, we went to Chick Fil A for breakfast, and Ella didn't even have to sit in a high chair!  Then we went on a quick Target run for fun band aids and wipes.  She didn't care too much for the wipes, but picked out Dory band aids.  She is loving all of the one-on-one attention.  (mental note: we need to separate them/more one-on-one fun activities)  She must be made to be an only child ;)  And only having one child to deal with is a freaking breeze.  I wouldn't change having twins, but damn it was easy-peasy!  lol

no high chair, chocolate milk, and her daddy - what a good life!

she pretty much got away with murder - sitting on the counter eating macaroni and cheese, for example

Ella also watched a lot of Mickey Mouse, and we were thankful for a rainy, gloomy few days day (since light isn't Ella's friend). 

two peas in a pod

happy momma

love this sweet, happy, smiling girl

I stressed so much about the surgery and unknown afterwards, that I didn't focus on the fact that her eyes would be normal - focusing and tracking appropriately.  It's awesome.  We are SO proud of her.  We can't wait for the bloody eyes to clear up, but in the meantime, it couldn't be better, and we're happy to have this behind us!

P.S. this isn't a lifetime fix, unfortunately.  we are hoping this surgical correction will last a LONG time, but we are prepared that she might need more surgeries in the future if her eye muscles get weak again.  oh, and fingers crossed that Sydney's eyes stay good, as this is apparently super hereditary.



***JUNE UPDATE***
I figured I needed to update how she's doing now.
SHE'S A DIFFERENT KID.
Ya'll - she went from being fussy all the time to being nice and sweet AND HAPPY!  Holy moly - now that she can see (or maybe she was having headachs?), it's literally like living with someone new.  The other day my dad said "she has dimples??" - poor pumpkin must not have smiled enough to show her cute dimple off!  I can't get over the change, and how thrilled we are that she's so much happier!