He is not cutting the inside ones the full amount to get full correction since wearing glasses helps to correct it to a certain point. So, he will still need glasses. But the hope is, is that he will eventually grow out of the cross-eyed-ness all the way on his own. The dr. said if he just went ahead and cut all of it now and tried to get rid of the glasses, he has a very big chance that they eyes will then start turning outward. So, he will cut it enough to try to get them straight while wearing his glasses, and hopefully as he grows, his eyes will strengthen enough to stay midline on their own without glasses. (although, he still may have to wear them for the farsighted part of his eyes). So after about 6 weeks from surgery, we will go back to see if his prescription needs to be changed and if we need to do more patching (atropine drops) to help keep the eyes working their best.
I am nervous for him and also nervous for recovery afterwards. Trying to keep him from rubbing his eyes is NOT going to be fun! We will probably have to splint his arms so he can’t bend them. Up until today, he has been excited for “getting his eyes fixed.” But tonight he looked at me and said, “I don’t want to have surgery and get my eyes fixed.” I asked why and he said, “because it will hurt.” I asked him who told him that and he said “the dr.” I then told him that I would give him some medicine to help his eyes not hurt so much and that seemed to calm his fears and then he said he was fine having surgery. So even at 2 years old, he is feeling a bit nervous. We took him to the surgery center today for a little walk-through and they gave him a teddy bear that he can take to the surgery. Maybe he was sensing some of the other kids worries.
Anyway – say prayers all will go well and that his little darling eyes will straighten out with the surgery!
