Sensory support

Whilst we were at Moorfields two weeks ago for Aaron's initial consultation and the 360 degree trabeculectomy, we also met with a sensory support worker who referred us to the team in our local borough. I received a call on Monday this week from the local team and she explained the realm of the services available to Aaron and for visually impaired children, everything from a sensory room to the ability to have someone come with us to key hospital appointments. Amazing. We talked about Aaron's congenital glaucoma, the trabeculectomy and its results, our next appointment and the topline diagnosis regarding the right congenital squint.

She arranged to come and meet Aaron today and arrived with a Mary Poppins-style bag of goodies to see how Aaron would react (ok it was a Tesco bag but it was full of magic). Among the things she pulled out were:

• A poofy ball of orange yarn, which Aaron tracked with his eyes and tried to eat
• A foil survival blanket, which Aaron grabbed, yelled at (!) and tried to eat
• Numerous light-up toys that whizzed and changed colour - you can guess what he did with these

She was impressed with Aaron's ability to roll over, push him self up and attempts to crawl and told us that children with visual impairments don't usually do that because they literally can't see any reason to. She said that she has seen older babies that don't move as much as him! Aaron has always been pretty active, even when the congenital glaucoma must have been at its peak and his eyes were really cloudy.

She was also impressed with Aaron's ability to read facial expressions, even from across the room. Although weekly visits are part of the service, given how well Aaron is doing right now we won't see her again for two weeks and then we'll assess from there how frequently she'll come to see us.

All in all it was comforting to see her reactions and get some reassurance that he's doing well. December is a long time to wait to see the doctor again!