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Drooling on the Pillow

Monday, May 24, 2004

Maybe I Should Switch to Worms 

The fishing trip will probably continue for another couple of weeks or so. Gracie's operation is June 2nd. It's not a dangerous procedure -- strabismus surgery. They do it a thousand times a day, but I seem unable to form thoughts about anything else. That kind of puts you out of the game for blogging.

Strabismus is "wandering eye". If a eye muscle is too strong or the opposite one is too weak for whatever reason, the eye, especially when tired, tends to wander away from binocularity. The brain attempts to compensate and the child will consciously try to pull the eye over, but if you wait much longer than age seven (Gracie just turned seven) there's a danger that the brain gives up and accepts the strabismus. At that point the chances for normal sight go way, way down. In Gracie's case, both eyes tend to wander out. That means the outer eye muscles are too strong. In the operation they sever the muscles and reattach them a little further back so that the tension of the inner and outer muscles are equalized. There's a chance that one procedure won't do it (I've heard figures anywhere from 10% to 40% for additional surgery, but the figures go up fast after seven years old). I have a lot of faith in the doctor, though and if it weren't for the general anesthetic, I'd be looking at this a lot more calmly. I believe everything's going to be good.

That's about all I know about the only thing I'm thinking about now so I hope I'll be peeking out at the world again within two weeks.

Thanks Garth, for the nudge.
Posted by: Sluggo / 2:49 PM
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