Thursday, 27 April 2017

Six months post 360 degree trabeculotomy

We had our checkup today for Aaron at the Richard Desmond Children's Eye Centre at Moorfields. It's been six months since he had his bilateral 360 degree trabeculotomies to manage his congenital glaucoma and so far, everything is looking great. I'm always afraid to say things like that, as if sharing good news is sure to jinx us, but his vision seems to be developing fine and his intraocular pressure is within the normal range (12 and 13). 

We don't have to go back for three months now, and the Fellow we saw said that if the news continues to be good, we can then push back to every 4-6 months and then...at some point Aaron could be discharged. We never even considered that was a possibility. Everything we had read about congenital glaucoma indicated lifelong care, but then everything we read was about cases managed with more traditional surgeries: goniotomy or a regular trabeculotomy. So it's pretty exciting news.

Lots of milestones around here lately, with the six month anniversary of the surgery and Aaron's first birthday next week. It's been a bit of a wild ride. The congenital glaucoma was a major scare, sending our five-month old baby in for revolutionary pediatric eye surgery (in both eyes) was scary, and then the constant worry that the surgery wouldn't work or would somehow reverse have been heavy loads to carry. And we don't have family close by so Adam and I have done the brunt of this on our own. 

With all of that said, we feel incredibly lucky right now. Lucky that it was a mild case of congenital glaucoma and that we caught it early, lucky that we found Mr. Brookes and Moorfields, and lucky that Aaron was a strong candidate for the 360 degree trabeculotomy. It's almost as if it all never happened and looking at Aaron, you wouldn't know he ever had anything wrong with him unless you really stare at his eyes (you can see a tiny bump where the scar is if you look very closely). He's quick to smile and laugh, he's pudgy and sweet and he loves to crawl, clap and climb stairs. Fingers crossed that Aaron's vision continues to develop normally and that the congenital glaucoma remains a distant memory.

Wednesday, 19 April 2017

Zika virus and congenital glaucoma

This article about the Zika virus potentially causing congenital glaucoma came up in my Google alerts and wanted to share:
http://health.usnews.com/health-care/articles/2017-04-18/zika-can-harm-babies-vision-too

Findings were originally published in the JAMA Ophthamology 14 April