Geaux Tigers & Opthamology

So, yesterday sweet Baby D slept through enjoyed his first BCS title game.  Well, I can't really say he enjoyed it because he was rooting for LSU, who lost, but it was good company anyway ;).  We ventured out to my parents house to watch it and boy, what a beating to get everything loaded!  The other day my brother in law asked if it was getting easier bringing him places.  It's not so much that it's easier, it's just that we're more used to it.  But like I said the other day, we are determined to be normal and not stuck at home.  Last night we also brought our other three kids over, so it was crazy getting loaded in the car, but we did it!  It was raining when we came back home so we just put a trash bag over the vent and ran out!

Yesterday morning we had our Opthamology appointment.  Once again, it was raining, and of course I woke up late, so it was frantic from the start.  Our poor nurse fell coming down our stairs in the garage but thankfully she is okay.  The doctor said he still can't figure out a diagnosis but he knows the eyes are working and the signal is getting to the brain.  Just for some reason, the brain is not doing what it is suppose to with the signal.  He said as we approach 12 months he will prescribe glasses due to Dominic's extreme far-sightedness.  He said for kids like this, all we can do is take away any obstacles we can for them (for Dominic his far sightedness) and hope their brain matures and starts processing the visual input it is receiving.  Some kids who are not tracking or following seem to grow our of it, some don't... we just have to wait and see.

He also said to start patching again, which had fallen off our radar.  Before we were thinking his right eye was abnormal because it doesn't open all the way, but now the Doc is thinking it is actually his left eye that is abnormal (which doesn't always close all the way).  He says it looks like there is a piece missing from the middle bottom part of the lid, making the eye look like it is opened bigger.  That combined with the right eye not opening all the way makes the size difference look relatively large.  He sited the crease in the left eye looks more shallow than the right eye, so now he thinks it is actually the right eye that is normal.

I know Dominic can see at least dark and light because he flinches when the light is turned on.  But he doesn't seem to really see me when I talk to him.  Every now and then I think maybe he can see me, but the majority of the time his little eyes just bounce around or show very significant nystagmus (where they move to the side of the eye and start to shake).  He is following me with sound though!  I have seen several times where I will go to the side of him and talk and he turns his head towards me.  He doesn't seem to know I'm there when am quiet in front of him, but once I start talking he starts smiling and responds.

This morning we read "Unless you become like little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of God (Mt 18:3).  Only the childlike retain the child's gift of wonder...wonder is the wellspring of praise."  It is so encouraging how God continually reminds us that everything is going to be okay.  Like I have said before, we have so much to be thankful for, and part of that is the fact that Dominic will always be childlike.  He never has to loose his innocence like the rest of us.  He can dwell in the wonder of the creation God has made and in that way he will continually give praise to God all his life.  I hope he can find God's love in the most simple and ordinary things.  Mike and I will do our best, as I'm sure his siblings will, to protect his little heart from the hardness of this world so that he can be full and free to give of his innocent self a complete and total gift to God.

In Jesus and Mary,
Chasity