Another eye diagnosis

Maria went to the pediatrician again on Saturday (the fourth time since we got back) because her eyes looked the worst they had yet. He said just keep doing what we are doing.

She finally got in to the eye doctor today and he had a new diagnosis. He said it is something called chalazion which is basically acne of the eyelids. It's a chronic condition (or, as Cathy said, "yet another chronic condition") that will come and go her whole life. We are supposed to scrub her eyelids with baby shampoo every day, even after it goes away. He took her off the eyedrops and instead there is an ointment we are supposed to use in addition to warm compresses. We go back in a month and if it hasn't cleared up by then he will have to *gulp* lance the lumps, which means putting her to sleep.

This is a new eye doctor for Maria. He's going to be starting a study of children with both CVI and auditory neuropathy and Cathy wanted to get Maria in. One piece of good news is that he said CVI kids often have major vision improvements up to the age of five (I think we've heard three before) and lesser improvements well into their teens. We also talked about Maria's optic nerve atrophy. He said it is very unlikely to resolve itself though it has been known to happen. He didn't look at her optic nerves since that would have meant dilating her eyes which he didn't want to do with her current condition.

I suppose this is a good week for this to be happening because Maria's getting a vacation. All of her therapists are on vacation except the PT, and she did her quarterly report this visit. So Maria can take it easy this week and rest up.