You win some, You lose some-It's always a mystery!

So today we took both girls to see Dr. Sharon Freedman at the Duke Eye Center. She has been Kaitlyn's doctor since her Chapel Hill doctor moved away before she turned 2 years old. Dr. Freedman is amazing with kids. She has always been able to get Kaitlyn to cooperate. She has been Kyleigh's doctor since her diagnosis by Dr. Young at birth. So we absolutely adore Dr. Freedman and appreciate her work and compassion for our children. She is always looking out for their best interest. 

Today she saw both girls to check their eye pressure and determine if any future procedures are needed. Turns out that Kyleigh is doing great. Her eye pressures are equalized at 13 and 14. Despite the extra puffiness surrounding the eye, her eye appears healthy. Dr. Freedman wants to continue monitoring her closely since her cornea on the right eye is still cloudy. So that is our point for the winning team! 

Now Kaitlyn on the other hand brings a different story. For a long time now she has been getting her pressures read and we were unsure of the accuracy because the older she gets the more resistant to pressure checks she becomes. For those that have never experienced it before they use an eye drop to numb the surface of the eye and then a topapen to tap on the surface of the eye. The pen measures the pressure and beeps as it is working. You don't necessarily feel the pen touching your eye but the anticipation is horrible even for adults--I blink so much they can't hardly get a measure on my eyes either. So I totally understand the fact that my child doesn't want a doctor coming towards her eyeball with a beeping pen. 

I stepped out of the room with Kyleigh in the hopes it would help Kaitlyn remain calm. Dennis said that Dr. Freedman was almost magical with her words and approaches to getting her pressure reading. She was forewarned by her associate that Kaitlyn had a difficult time and a full tantrum minutes before when he tried to check the pressure. 

Dr. Freedman began by examining "Polly". For those of you that don't know, Polly is Kaitlyn's baby doll. She got it last year for her birthday, it is her first American girl doll. Anyways, Polly insisted on coming along to the doctor's office today so she got her eyes checked too :) 

Dr. Freedman went through the whole charades of washing her hands and helping Kaitlyn give Polly eyedrops, check Polly's pressure, and so forth. Then it was Kaitlyn's turn to do the same. It was perfection at it's best. 

Unfortunately, the pressure check confirmed the suspicions of her associate. The associate had gotten a reading of 38---way too high! Dr. Freedman was able to do 6 different readings and the best was in the very high 20's. This is better than high 30's but still not good considering she was calm and it was accurate. 

We asked if she thought Kaitlyn was a candidate for the lens implant now since she absolutely hates the contact lens and has trouble on bad allergy days. She said from first glance that she did not think her eye had the correct formation for an implant. Nor did she like that her pressure was high, this could complicate the implant surgery. So for now, we wait. 

We will come back in a month with both girls. At that time she will schedule an exam under anesthesia (EUA) for Kaitlyn. This is the only way to get an ultimate eye pressure. During this exam if her pressure is good and her eye has good formation of a "shelf" then she will and can do the implant. Otherwise, we can look into the option of using glasses only to help her sight. But like we were told in the beginning, glasses don't give her the best vision because it doesn't make her left and right eye equal because her right eye has it's natural lens. 

For now, we just don't know what the future is for Kaitlyn's eyes. She may or may not have to have a surgical procedure for the pressure. She may or may not be a candidate for the implant. She may or may not get to stop wearing a contact and just wear glasses. This is the mystery. 

We only pray that both girls eye pressures stay at a healthy level so that no more damage is caused to their optic nerves. We pray that Kyleigh's cornea clears up. We pray that a solution is come to regarding the best for Kaitlyn's vision needs whether it involves a contact or not. 

Overall a score of 1-1 isn't so bad for a full day at the doctor's office. Let's just pray that come June 16th at the re-check we get a score of 2-0!