What an eye doctor!

I must admit how pleasantly surprised I am with Sumana's new eye doctor, Dr. Paul Harvey. I have to really concentrate and put on my 'SAT' vocabulary ears when I listen to him. Even then, I need to ask for clarification, but who cares??? He's taking time to figure out Sumana's eyes and give us some direction to work with.

Sumana's eyes improved last time from 20/80 to 20/60. Today's exam wasn't very remarkable: she's solidly at 20/50. However, Dr. Harvey was able to diagnose some more issues. He has already learned that Sumana has blind spots in her field of vision and she has NO depth perception. Today he was able to determine that at close range Sumana sees double, then as an object moves away, from 4ft to 8ft, her right eye shuts completely off. Then beyond 8 feet it'll come back and try to work with the other eye. Isn't that amazing?

Our next plan of action is to apply eye drops every night at bedtime. This will relax her good eye and MAKE her weaker eye work. We will still continue to patch periodically throughout the day to give her an even greater workout. She will be re-evaluated in 6 weeks and then he'll do more tests and give us some exercises depending on his findings. Dr. Harvey is hopeful that we can correct some of these visual problems AND (get this . .) possibly DEVELOP some depth perception. But, of course, that's WAYYYY down the road. I'm just sooooo thankful to have a local eye doctor who is willing to stick with Sumana and try out different things. What a huge blessing.

Crazy Good News!

Dr. Sanders measured Sumana's x-rays yesterday. Her curve improved from 28 degrees to 18 degrees! (The curve was over 50 degees when we started with the VEPTR surgeries). He also checked her skeletal age by examining an x-ray of her hand. At the most, he thinks she has a year of growth left.

So, because of the improvement in her curve, the fact that she would need brand new rods at the next surgery and her remaining expected growth, he recommended that we leave her alone and let her GROW! Woo-hoo! That means no surgery in 4 to 6 months . . . only a follow up appointment in November. Is that awesome news, or what?? Sumana is so excited!

Also, Dr. Sanders and Dr. Rubery are forming a nationwide study of kids with early onset scoliosis and their treatment. Sumana is 'Number 33' in the study. So some day if you're reading up on the treatment of kids with scoliosis and you come across 'subject 33' you'll know it's Sumana! I'm really pleased to have her participate in the study. It will outline her history and treatment and the resulting effects as she grows. Pretty cool, huh?!!