Life in 2D

I didn't want to steal Nolan's thunder. I thought I'd let him recuperate from his surgery before Asher comes centre stage again.

But now Nolan is back to himself so here's Asher's big announcement:

He's having another surgery!

Yay!!

And by "yay" I actually mean "sonofa *beep* you *beep* are you *beep*ing kidding me"?

Yes, I can swear like a trucker but I'm a good girl and leave that off of the blog. Anyway, I'll start with the good news:

The surgery is not related in any way, shape, or form, to his "nether regions". That does deserve a big YAY considering all three of the boys' former surgeries do (as does another upcoming one for Asher that you'll hear more about too, and he'll likely have that one first).

The bad news is, it's still surgery. And it's on his eye.

Hrmph. This sucks, no?

Here's the thing. Asher's eyes are great. Well I should say each eye independently is great. It's together that's the problem.

Those of you who know Asher well have likely noticed his right eye turn out on occasion (strabismus - more specifically exotropia). He controls it well and brings it back to alignment very quickly. We have been watching this for ages, and until now, our opthalmologist has not been concerned. We always assumed that if we ever did operate, it would solely be for cosmetic purposes.

But when Asher saw the good doctor last month we found out that the problem is now more than cosmetic. Unbeknownst to us, Asher's eyes are always out of alignment very, very slightly. This is nothing we ever noticed, and took a specialist's trained eyes to do so. Of course we noticed when his eye went further out, but we didn't realize that when he brought it back to center, it really wasn't center after all.

I'll give you a looky loo.

This is Asher, exhausted in the carseat, about to fall asleep (tiredness is what causes to to turn out most often). See that right eye?

This is Asher with his eyes centred. Or so we thought - apparently they're not. Can you blame us for missing this?? 

So, here's the crappy part. Because Asher's eyes are out of alignment all the time, they have learned to see independently. This means that Asher can no longer use both eyes at the same time. His right eye is great and his left eye is great, but unfortunately having two great eyes does not mean they are great together. Essentially this means that Asher is navigating the world with zero depth perception. In a child that struggles with his motor skills, this surely can't be helping.

If we do the surgery now (and by 'now' I mean awesome BC medical entails a 6 month wait), the doctor is confident he will not only bring the eyes together cosmetically, but he will also be able to restore vision together, in both eyes, at the same time. (If you want to read more about the condition, and treatment, check it out here.) He is confident that when he is done, Asher will have excellent vision, and there will be no need for patching or glasses.

Of course surgery is scary, especially with the boys' track record. We could delay and wait till Asher is older and asks to do it for cosmetic reasons, but by that point the vision will not be reparable and Asher will live his entire life in 2D. Obviously our fears will be put aside and we've made the right decision to do surgery now.

Not that it makes it any better, but at least we can attribute this to the CP. Don't get me wrong, not that we want him to have complications from his CP, but at least strabismus is common in CP, and therefore we have a reason for this happening. His other surgeries? Just really, really bad luck.

AS IF he needs to go through anything else?!  But at least he'll be smiling?!!