Eye appointment update

Yesterday was Karsen's appointment with Ophthalmology, the trip down there was probably the most successful and least stressful. We got down there, avoiding a good amount of traffic, while Karsen and I were in with the Doc, Karter and Kuper were outside playing. The doctor was very thorough and took a good amount of time with Karsen, I was very grateful. Karsen got his eyes dilated, which was fine, I was surprised he did so well when they administered the eye drops. Now checking his eyes after the fact, that's another story. Whew! He did not like that at all! He screamed for a good solid 5 minutes. The doctor had to bring in her assistant to hold open his eyes while she looked and I held Karsen against me. It was heart breaking but I also didn't want to have to do this again, so one shot was the goal. It worked. The doctor was able to get all the information needed and at the end of the visit Karsen got yet another diagnosis to tack on to his chart, strabismus. Really, I was relieved. The actual definition of strabismus is; a visual defect in which the eyes are misaligned and point in different directions. One eye may look straight ahead, while the other eye turns inward, outward, upward, or downward.  In Karsen's case, his right eye is turned inward. Because it isn't happening all day long the doctor is confident Karsen will not need surgery and all we need to fix it is eye patch him for an hour and a half on his good eye to strengthen the muscles in his right eye. Strabismus is common amount children with disorders that affect the brain. Number one on the paper we got? What do you think? Cerebral palsy. No surprise there. I'm very happy Karsen wont need surgery but sad we have to eye patch him every day for x amount of time. I know he's not going to like it. I definitely want to avoid doing this in public.... could you imagine the questions I will get for that one? A hand brace is one thing, an eye patch?! Poor little man. Well, that's it for the update. Karsen's scheduled on Monday for his 48 hour (they decided to do 48 hour to make sure they catch anything, rather than having to do it again) EEG. The best part about it? We get the results before we leave at the end of the 48 hours. Woo hoo! Immediate results don't happen very often in the medical world. I'm ready for it! Ready to get answers. Our hope? That Karsen's staring is a symptom of his seizure med and not an actual seizure, if that's the case than no more meds. If he is in fact having seizures, Kuper and I both want to switch him to a different med since this one he currently is on (zonegran) has so many nasty side effects. One of which, oral motor function. Since Karsen is having such eating problems you can understand why I want to get him off that med. Tomorrow Karsen gets fitted for his AFO (ankle foot orthopedic) I'm going to try to take my camera and get some pictures or maybe even film so I can put it up for people that will be soon going through this too. I have no clue what to expect. We'll see.... Until tomorrow. :-)