Ryan's Peepers

Totally slacking on blogging again, but I thought I should at least update on Ryan's sedated eye exam yesterday. He has had glaucoma in his right eye (his "bad" eye) since the NICU. He gets 2 different eye drops a day (one in the AM and PM and another just PM). He was on the same 2 drops from the time he was in the NICU up until one year ago. Last May when he had a sedated exam done, the pressure was elevated in his right eye even with the drops. So his opthalmologist changed the drops and we went back for another exam in July to see if they were working and they were. Well, yesterday the pressure was back up in his right eye. (His left/"good" eye is still doing great...no problems other than the nearsightedness.) Dr. B. told me that one option would be to increase his one eye drop to 3 times a day, but that's not usually tolerated well in kids. He also doesn't want to start him on anything oral. So he wants to try him on Timolol, which is a beta blocker and it will decrease fluid production in the eye, hopefully decreasing the pressure. He has me a bit nervous about it because he told me to watch Ryan for difficulty breathing or being easily tired out. He is on the lowest possible dose, though, and Dr. B. thinks he will be fine. He goes back August 4th for a regular visit and we'll go from there!

Ryan did really well yesterday, but the anesthesiologist really ticked me off. Right before he came in to see Ryan, the nurse had put the drops in Ryan's eyes to dilate them so he would be ready for the exam. Ryan flipped out a little because they burned and he was still settling down when the anesthesiologist came in. He was talking about giving him Versed to calm him down (which I would have NEVER agreed to), but then said we'd wait and see how he was in a few minutes. Then his brilliant idea to get Ryan to go back with them without freaking out was to tell him they were taking him to a game room and Ryan got SO excited. So when I went back to see Ryan after it was over and he was awake, that was the very first thing he asked about. And he kept asking to go to the game room up until we left. I somehow managed to get him out of there without him totally flipping out. We had to stop over at the optical place to pick up his new prescription and he did fine in there. Then he slept in the car the whole hour ride home. I gave him the choice between stopping at McDonald's or for Chinese and he picked Chinese, so we had lunch together before we went to my mom and dad's (my mom kept Brooke while I took Ryan). Luckily he seemed to forget about the game room.

Here's hoping the Timolol works and Ryan has no ill effects from it!