Post-op report

I got the word from Cathy that Maria's surgery went pretty quickly. Maria was sleeping when Cathy called and I'm hoping she just slept most of the day away, since the longer Cathy can keep her eyes patched the better she'll heal.

The doctor said that the oil in the other, non-inflamed glands was still thicker than normal so she is likely to have recurring bouts of chalazion for her whole life. We just have to be aggressive the instant a new one shows up to use the compresses so she doesn't have to go through this again.

He also took the opportunity to give her eyes a better exam since she was under anesthesia. He said that the interior of her optic nerve just isn't there; the nerve is hollow. It may be that it never formed right, it may be that it was damaged (probably by the hydrocephalus). He suspects it's probably both. It's not degenerative, so it won't get worse. As her development continues her brain will compensate for the damage, though we don't know how much.

He also evaluated her for glasses. He said she was definitely very nearsighted, and said her vision was 4 (we're assuming that's diopters). I found a website that says that's equivalent to 20/400 vision which is quite severe for her age and it will likely get worse as she gets older. It may even get bad enough that they can't correct it to normal vision. However he said he doesn't want to put her in glasses yet, that we'll wait another couple of visits before he does that. I'm not sure why, unless he just wants to re-evaluate her after she's fully recovered from the surgery or something. After all glasses would go so nicely with her hearing aids, AFOs, and shunt. She'll be more machine than human soon :)