Friday, September 28, 2007

A new doctor for Cainan

Today Cainan met with the eye doctor. I don't know if any of you remember, but when we first saw pictures of Cainan, then Cainan himself, we thought his one eye looked to be a little lazy, and cross to the middle of his face often. So we wanted to get it checked out to make sure he was seeing okay. The eye doctor appointment was interesting! I have never taken a small child to an eye doctor before and was curious how they would perform a test on a little one. This was no easy feat! They had him look at a series of cards and focus on the different black and white lines. Each card had these lines and each card had different widths of the lines. It made my eyes hurt! But Cainan just had to look at them. After a few cards he grew tired of this game and wouldn't look at them any more. We tried to get his attention, but he just closed his eyes! Little stinker. But they told me they got him to look at each card. He did have to have his eyes dialated, and then she looked in his eyes. She distracted him with some light motion toys so that he would look straight ahead, and that seemed to keep him occupied. He didn't like getting his eyes dilated, but while we waited for the medicine to work, they had a playroom, so that helped. In the end, the doctor discovered that Cainan didn't have a crossed eye - that he just seemed to have a lot of extra skin around his nose and eyes, and once he grows into his face, the eye will look straight. But she did discover that he does have nearsightedness and astigmatism. I knew I shouldn't have gone there! Now he needs glasses! :) Great. Poor Cainan. I can't believe they would put glasses on a baby, but I guess they do! They aren't going to be cute either! I am sure they will have to wrap around his head so they stay on.
Now his nearsightedness we are told is pretty common in Asian people. I guess most Caucasian people are born far sighted, and then move to 20/20, and then to nearsightedness. Asians tend to start at 20/20 or nearsightedness and have worse sight earlier on! But if we would have never taken him to the doctor, it might have been years before we realized that he couldn't see well. He seems to see just fine. We are thinking we will wait on the glasses probably until the new year. Mostly because of 2 things: 1 - he has been through enough. 2 - he is wearing a helmet. I don't think he will be able to get the glasses on under that helmet. He doesn't need any more trouble with his head, and since he is little and not driving or reading (ha) he will be fine a few more months. But we have the prescription. Sigh.
The helmet is back on today. His head is cleared up nicely, and it is time to get back to wearing it. He took it in stride going back on. I am sure the heat rash will return, but this time we are keeping him in his diaper from the get go, to help keep it from getting so bad. And now that he is on the other side of the surgery, his face won't be swollen so he shouldn't get the breakdown of the skin. (We hope!)
Arlington said something funny that I wanted to share. Cainan got some balloons while he was in the hospital (thanks to gramma and Pappy Pletcher) and Arlington wanted me to tie one to her wrist when we got home. She grew tired of it after awhile and wanted it off. The knot had gotten pretty tight, so I said to her "I may have to cut it off". She looked at me and said, "cut off my hand?" (she was being very serious). I laughed and explained that I was going to cut off the balloon string. I asked her, "what would you do without your hand?" And she said - in the strictest 4 year old seriousness "I guess I would have to get a hook". She is too funny!
Finley is still very sick. The laryngitis is better today, but she has a terrible cough and runny nose. And she is hardly sleeping. She was up just about every hour last night and today only took a little nap. She is very cranky. We also know she is getting some molars, so that isn't helping. We are trying to keep her pain down, but she is still very sad. She isn't eating much. She won't eat anything hard or hot. So she is mostly drinking, and eating yogurt and fruit. We are satisfied with the amount of food she is eating. I hope she feels better soon. I really feel for her. Basically since she started daycare 2 months ago she has been nothing but sick. Arlington was the same way when she started, but it is hard to watch your kid go through it.
Here are just a few pictures from today!


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poor little Finley, what a nightmare, two babies needing so much attention has to be very difficult. Keep the faith, tomorrow will be better. One of Debbie's granddaughters has to have glasses and she is just a few months old. I'll ask Debbie to E you with the details. Nanny

Marilyn, Paul, PJ, Chris & Lauren said...

Hey, glad things are going a little better for Cainan. If he gets glasses you can get seriously cute ones, even for the little guys! Our son has worn glasses since he was about 18mo. They wrap around his ears, but not around his head. Cute wire frames. Thought it might cheer you up (even a little :^) ).

Marilyn Rhude