eye lift...

Brooklyn's sight has always been a big question mark, well along with a lot of other things about her. She has all the correct parts of her eyes to be able to see, the question then lies in the connection between the eyes and the brain. She rarely focuses on anything and generally her eyes are just rolling around especially since she started having seizures. In fact she rarely even opens her eyes. Many people including her vision therapist (yep they have those), her eye doctor and me have different theories as to why she keeps her eyes shut most of the time. I figured it was a combination of seizures that make her tired and medication that makes her tired. Her vision therapist's theory is that the world is really overwhelming for her and her coping mechanism is to shut things out that she doesn't quite understand by closing her eyes and basically checking out.  I have noticed that she seems more alert when things are quiet and she feels safe, but honestly keeping things quiet and stable at my house is next to impossible, so I do my best, but seriously I have other kids. 

Today Brooklyn had an appointment with her ophthalmologist and he came up with an entirely new theory. He asked how her sight was developing and I said, "Well lets be honest, its not as far as I can tell." Brooklyn doesn't focus, doesn't track, and doesn't even respond really to bright light shining in her eyes. However, I do truly believe that she can see and I believe deep down that there are brief moments where she connects with what she is seeing (gotta stay optimistic). I mentioned to him that she doesn't open her eyes all that often and even when she does, she doesn't open them very wide. At his office she seemed to be awake and wiggling around but we really didn't get her to open her eyes on her own. His theory is that she may benefit from an eye lift. If we can help her eyes to easily open wider, then it may make it easier for her to focus on some things. He set me up with an ocular-plastic surgeon to see what their opinion is on her eye lids. He said that most likely her eyesight is going to be directly related to her development, but he wants to make seeing as easy as possible for her. 

So we get to see yet another specialist in a few weeks. The thought of surgery always makes me nervous, but I am willing to do what I can to help make her life a little easier. So we are going Hollywood and getting our little girl an eye lift, I mean everybody is doing it, right!!!