Cataract surgery?!?!

Yesterday we took Claire to see Dr. Clopton, the vision therapist. We got to where his office had been before but it was gone. So I called and got directions to the new place, which was thankfully only 5 minutes away. They've got a lot more room now and a much nicer setup.

Anyway, he examined her and said that both eyes are getting used, but that they are not moving in sync. Her left eye is still turned in ever so slightly, which I had noticed before. It's not really obvious if you are just looking at her, but I have been looking at where light reflects on her eyes and could tell it was just slightly off sometimes. Other times it is fine. The cataracts in her left eye became the main concern.

Claire was extremely cooperative w/ Dr. Clopton. We went to a different exam room so he could spray her eye to dilate the pupil and take pictures of her cataracts. He showed them to us and sent them to our email address. I had noticed them myself when she was just a few months old but did not know what they were. You only see them at a certain angle when her eyes are not dilated. Doug had never actually seen them before.


The first picture is a straight-on shot.



The second one was taken while her left eye was looking inward, so it's more of a side shot of the main cataract.

He said the cataracts have definitely grown since her last appointment (early April) and is now recommending we get them removed as this is probably a major contributing factor as to why her eye is still turning in a little. That and it is now in her main line of vision. He was a little surprised the surgeon did not do that while he was straightening her eye, but we explained why he did not. (See previous post) So he called another eye surgeon and talked to him about it. This guy, Dr. Galloway, would put in an intraocular lens (IOL) after removing Claire's lens so that she would not require a contact on that eye. They would put one in that is a little too strong at this point in anticipation of her eye growing so that when she is 10 or so, when her eye is done growing, it should be just right. In the meantime they would correct her vision w/ glasses.

So we have an appointment w/ Dr. Galloway on Sept. 27 for him to take a look for himself. Dr. Clopton did email the pictures to him.

After I put Noah and Claire to bed last night, I got online to do some research on the surgery. I'm not quite as anxious about the procedure itself as I was w/ her strabismus surgery (been there, done that?). Cataract removal is the most common surgery done in the U.S. Putting an IOL in a child is somewhat controversial, but it's either that or contacts for the rest of her life. What concerns me the most is the risk of her developing glaucoma anywhere from days to years after the surgery. It is not uncommon for that to happen, but moreso in children who have the cataracts removed at a very early age (weeks old). It appears that the risk decreases as the child gets older. (Claire would be in the "older" category.) There are "treatments" for glaucoma, which consist of drops, drugs, or surgery, none of which appeal to me AT ALL. I emailed Dr. Clopton about this and he says the risk is very small, especially when compared to what will happen if we don't do the surgery. He encouraged me to talk to the surgeon about it.

I'm trying to picture a 3 year old w/ glaucoma and it's a bit unsettling. Maybe I'm just used to the idea of cataracts and glaucoma is a big new scary concept for me to grapple w/.