Follow up visit at the PRUH: the eye clinic

Adam had taken the day off work and we turned up absurdly early for the eye clinic at the PRUH. We were seen promptly and the specialist very gently did a series of tests. He quickly diagnosed that little Aaron indeed had high pressure in his eyes and clouded corneas, at which point I said 'glaucoma' and he said 'yes'.  Hopefully I'm paraphrasing correctly but he compared Aaron's congenital glaucoma to a tap and drain, basically the tap is running and the water isn't draining so his cornea is waterlogged - hence the cloudiness.

No one in our immediate family has glaucoma or has had any childhood eye issues that we know of. The odds of having congenital glaucoma are 1 in 10,000! So rare that even though it might have been present at birth and even though I'd been badgering health visitors about Aaron's squint for months, no one would have been looking for it. Rather unfortunate because the pressure on the optic nerve causes damage that can't be undone.

The specialist was quick to point out that there were treatment options, more so for babies with glaucoma than for an adult because a baby's eyes are still stretchy. He was incredibly kind with all of our questions:

• yes, surgery was probably the best option but this would be left to the doctor we'd be referred to at Moorfields
• no, Aaron isn't blind and if we treat this now probably won't lose all his vision
• no, it shouldn't affect his brain functions 
• yes, he may need really, really thick glasses 
• no, we don't know yet how independently he'll be able to function - in some cases the surgery can fix things almost completely, it all depends on how much damage there already is
• no, the congenital glaucoma doesn't hurt so to speak but it probably makes Aaron restless and exhausted

The next step was the referral to Moorfields Eye Hospital and we were given a prescription for drops whilst we were still at the PRUH so that we could start to reduce the pressure in Aaron's eyes before our appointment at Moorfields. We left the PRUH grateful that we could start treating Aaron right away but wondering how on earth to get eye drops in the eyes of a busy, strong-willed five month old?!