Twists and Turns

All I can say is that we are seeking wisdom from the Lord with all of our hearts. Our visits with the Chiropractor are going well and Andrew seems to be showing some signs of improvement. Not specifically an improvement of visual acuity which is what the ophthalmologist is looking for, but some improvements in other areas.
We were talking to our Chiropractor about where we were at with Andrew's vision and Andrew's patching regiment. Dr. Ky again suggested that we consider vision therapy. We talked more in depth about our experience with the optometrist and vision therapy. We thought, well that was that, and didn't think too much about it. But at our next visit Dr. Ky told us that he had talked to his brother in law who is one of the partners at the Child and Family eye clinic that we had taken Andrew to for an evaluation. We were shocked to find out that he had a brother in law there that was one of the partners. We were even more surprised that Dr. Ky of his own initiative spoke to Dr. Moffatt (the brother in law) on our behalf. Dr. Moffatt was interested and told Dr. Ky that he would personally look into Andrew's case. When Dr. Ky told us about this we were so blessed by his actions and believed that the Lord may be re-opening this door of vision therapy. Even more strange is that we later found out that Dr. McMain's whom we previously saw was no longer with the practice and that her emphasis was on the learning therapy...which was what turned us off as we were looking for vision help--not play therapy, because we wanted to do that at home!

So, we decided to schedule an appointment with Dr. Moffatt specifically and will be seeing him tomorrow to re-evaluate Andrew. From Andrew's file he said that he would never have recommended that we stop patching unless we were doing vision therapy and that he felt he would likely still need surgery. He was also puzzled as to why it took us 2 months to complete the evaluation. So, now we are cautiously, prayerfully reconsidering the possibility of vision therapy. Please join us in prayer as we seek the Lord's wisdom . In the end it is His will that we want to be done. I can't help but think about so many providential events and people that the Lord has placed in our life over the past few months, when it seemed all hope was gone and that we were to just accept that we had accomplished the best for Andrew's vision. Seemingly, out of no where, a door has opened that the Lord may use to accomplish healing in Andrew's life to "restore to you the years the locusts have eaten" -Joel 2:25

Ophthalmology Update...progress!!!

We went for our follow-up appointment today with Dr. Mazow, Andrew's pediatric ophthalmologist (maybe I will finally learn how to spell this word!) who specializes in strabismus and amblyopia. We were so thrilled to find out that Andrew had improved 3 lines, from 20/100 to 20/60. He is almost back to where we thought he was at last summer, although now we have to wonder if he really was 20/50 since two other Dr.s showed him at best 20/70. At any rate it was a great relief to have him going in the right direction. So, we continue to patch all waking hours for another month and pray we can get him to 20/30. This is Dr. Mazow's optimum for him before surgery. The truth is this would truly be a miracle given the likely length of time he has gone untreated as we believe him to have had this since birth. We trust our sovereign Lord and pray His will be done as He created Andrew's eyes and knew all of this would come to pass.
Dr. Mazow will do the surgery even if Andrew does not improve from where he is right now, but we are unsure how long he will wait. I believe as long as Andrew is showing improvement that we will continue to patch month to month. Once progress plateaus I am sure we will begin to talk about surgery options.

Patching all waking hours is difficult. We are seeing some changes in Andrew. As you can imagine he tires more easily, concentration and focusing on tasks has become much more challenging for him. In the evening I can more visibly see his nystagmus in the left eye as he is so tired. It is a sacrifice as his learning has slowed also although he continues to amaze us with his impeccable auditory learning and memory. The Lord has given him such a sweet spirit of perseverance and joyful attitude with all of this. Of course that smile says it all. We know the sacrifice is short term for long term benefits. We trust the Lord to guide us to make the best decisions for all of Andrew not just his eyes.

Dr. Mazow was so excited and so good with Andrew. It was a good day as we all went to this appointment together so, we all got to share the joy of this news first hand. In talking with the Orthoptist she noticed Kathlena's head tilt and we talked to her about Kathlena's nystagmus. We will be taking Kathlena in for evaluation at Andrew's next visit too. We feel so blessed by Dr. Mazow and his staff. All of them have been so good to us and the kids. We praise the Lord for leading us to this Dr. at just the right time.

I continue to research on both nystagmus and strabismus and surgical options. A book that has been very helpful to me is Navigating Nystagmus with Your Doctor. The man who wrote it has lived with nystagmus his whole life and fought to get the treatment he needed. He has done tons of research and even has yahoo groups of people who share this diagnosis. There have been some new surgical procedures in the last decade that may be what Andrew and/or Kathlena will need. I am continually in awe of how the Lord is providing for them in ways I could never have imagined.

Both Andrew and Kathlena continue to grow in stature and knowledge. They are truly incredible kids. I am so privileged to be their mom.

After our appointment we headed over to the Houston Zoo. That Zoo pass is going to get lots of use as we are going monthly for Dr. appointments. Here are some pictures from our day.

My beautiful girls!

Zebras were Andrew's favorite.

This little lizard was too funny. It was playing with Kathlena.

It would jump towards the glass at her and she would giggle.

I wished I had videoed it. It was too cute! The reptiles are not

usually so lively so we were surprised.

Andrew and Kathlena's first time on a carousel. They are

hooked now and can't wait to go back next month to ride

again.

Daddy is coming to pick us up and none too soon

as the littles are ready for a nap. It has been a long,

exciting day. Mommy is ready for a nap too!

Andrew's Eyes Update

Today, we went to see another ophthalmologist, Dr. Mazow of Houston Eye Center. In mid October under the advice of the optometrist we were seeing we stopped patching Andrew for his amblyopia. Once we concluded all of the testing with the optometrist and had our parent consult with the her we felt we needed to go back to an ophthalmologist as surgery is imminent (the one common thread through both dr.'s) and we were uneasy with the direction the optometrist was going. It would seem too much emphasis was being placed on his previous circumstances as empirical evidence was likely not reliable as a result of his English skills at the time of testing. So, we began patching again while we waited to get in to see Dr. Mazow as we were quite certain we would be going back to this. The more we read it seemed that in order to correct the amblyopia patching was the only way. I think this was our number one problem with the optometrist (even though we all wanted it to be true that there was another way other than patching) in that she said patching would not help him. It could be that she was willing to accept his acuity where it was and seek to improve other areas such as peripheral vision, but we were not ready to give up on him improving his acuity just yet.

Our visit with Dr. Mazow was as predicted and he concurred with our first ophthalmologist in that patching is what is needed and extensive patching in Andrew's case. So, we are back to patching all waking hours now for a month then we will go back to Dr. Mazow. He wants to keep a close check on him for signs of improvement. In Dr. Mazow's office he also had an orthoptist evaluate Andrew. She determined that he also has nystagmus in both eyes...it is very slight though. We both felt like we got a very thorough evaluation with Dr. Mazow and he is very experienced with strabismus and amblyopia. The trip to see him was not so fun as we were stuck in traffic for almost 2hrs to get to the appointment...you got to love Houston!

Please pray for Andrew...patching is hard. He is such a little trooper though. He is very compliant and knows that it is to help him see better, but it is still very hard. He tested at 20/100 at Dr. Mazow's office. When we began in July his vision was 20/50 then, 20/70 in October at the optometrist and now 20/100 so, it has doubled in 4 months. We only stopped patching for about 6 weeks. Even when we were patching it was getting worse...not sure why. We just continue to pray for wisdom and for healing for Andrew's eyes. Thank you for lifting him up to the Lord with us.