As previously mentioned, Roxi has been diagnosed with crossed eyes. Yesterday she had her follow-up appointment with the pediatric opthamologist. The purpose of this meeting was to determine whether or not her glasses are improving her condition. Sadly, they are not. So the next step is surgery, which we are scheduled for in a month.
We're happy with Roxi's doctor. He's the best in Northern Colorado, a specialist with kids and does this kind of surgery every week. Even better, he's approachable, communicative and great with Roxi. We came to him with a full page of single-spaced, typed questions yesterday. He answered every one ... in as much detail as Rob and I wanted.
He also offered to get us an expedited second opinion from a specialist in Denver, which we will do because, well, these are Roxi's eyes we're talking about. He also gave us the name and number of a family whose toddler had the exact same surgery. So we'll be calling and sucking as much information from them as they're willing to give.
In the end, though, I expect we'll be keeping our surgery date with this doctor. Which is too scary to think about but much less frightening than not fixing the problem.
Here's where I go into medical mumbo jumbo. Feel free to tune out.
Roxi has constant congenital esotropia and hypertropia. Her eyes turn in (esotropia) and up (hypertropia) all the time (constant), but not both at the same time. Her eyes alternate crossing, which is good news since it means each eye has established connections with the brain. They just don't work together. Roxi was likely born with the condition (congenital) but it has gotten worse with time.
The purpose of the surgery is to re-establish binocular vision – both eyes working in unison - and therefore improve depth perception and peripheral vision. It will also improve Roxi's appearance, but that's secondary as far as we're concerned. The sooner she has the surgery, the more likely it is for her to achieve binocular vision. There are no guarantees, of course, but we're hoping for the best and know that Roxi will be a stellar patient.