Arrrr, Matey

Recently, we had noticed that Nicholas's left eye was starting to turn inward. It was new.

At his 15 month check up, Mike asked Nicholas's pediatrician his thoughts and the pediatrician suggested we take Nicholas in to see an ophthalmologist for their opinion. Nicholas had previously been to this ophthalmologist when we noticed that his pupils were two different sizes. This doctor specializes in working with children with neurological disorders and eye issues. He's the one who determined that Nicholas's pupils were just a variation of normal.

Mike was able to get in very quickly (the next day) to the doctor who ran a multitude of tests. He determined it wasn't a palsy of any of the nerves in the eye and when he checked the pressures inside Nicholas's eyes they were exactly the same as last time. The doctor explained that this is actually quite a common problem with kids with things out of the ordinary going on inside their brains. Since it is highly likely that Nicholas was born with some brain damage due to the size of his ventricles at birth, his brain has been very busy the past year re-routing pathways. As the ophthalmologist explained it to Mike, he thinks a new superhighway has been built near Nicholas's left eye and the pathway to his left eye has become a two lane road. As with cars, the likelihood that a significant amount of communication will be headed down a two lane road when a superhighway is near is slim to none, Basically, when Nicholas's brain re-built some of his pathways, they messed up the pathway to his left eye.

This isn't something that is overwhelmingly worrying at this point. Because he's still so young and his brain is still so dynamic, there are ways to fix it. But we need to fix it sooner than later, because what could eventually happen is that Nicholas's brain could decide the two lane road to his left eye receives so little traffic that it's not needed anymore. Then Nicholas could go blind in that eye. Nicholas and I had a talk before he left for his nose surgery on December 31st that we're trying to make 2016 a surgery free year, so I'm pretty sure this will work. He's wearing a patch on his right eye for three hours each day for the next six weeks and then we'll follow up with the ophthalmologist. Hopefully the additional requirements on the left eye will strengthen the muscles and beef up the pathway and everything will be resolved. If not, we could be looking at surgery to fix it. It's a minor surgery, but obviously we'd like to avoid that if possible.

Either way, he's about the cutest little pirate you'll ever see!