May 5, 2017 "Three more appointments"

May 4

1-Went for an x-ray because Dr. Narotam suspects Rayden's hip may have slipped out of joint. 

2-Ophthalmology- Dr. Grace says Rayden's intermittent exotropia is getting worse. She says his left eye "just goes on vacation." It turns outward sometimes which causes two different pictures to be sent to the brain. Dr. Grace is really concerned about the vision in his left eye. She says people misunderstand the definition of lazy eye. It actually means low vision. It is not communicating with the brain correctly. If it's not corrected by age 7 the brain will start to ignore the eye causing permanent vision loss. 

I have been really confused. I thought the patching was correcting his crossing. Dr. Grace says patching works on vision but she doesn't believe his crossing is due to vision. She believes there is other stuff going on. (neurological deficit)

Her recommendation is to increase wearing his patch from one hour a day to two hours a day. If there is no improvement in six months, age 3, she will recommend surgery. They will operate on the muscles to bring the eyes closer together. This will train his eyes to work together for one picture signal to the brain instead of two. Ultimately she is trying to prevent permanent vision loss in his left eye. 

May 5

1-Orthodist-We went to Wilmington this afternoon to get Rayden's twister cables adjusted. He apparently has gone through a growth spurt and they were too short. 

Of course, we had to stop by and see Alex at work. Rayden sure misses his brother. 

2-X-ray results- Here is the email I received from Dr. Narotam this afternoon:

So the hips are in place in the socket which is good news, BUT the left hip (your right) looks a little "dysplastic" which means the socket is not deep enough to keep the hip in place. I suspect the the hip (the oval shaped bone) will progressively move out of the socket over time. 

I think it would be worthwhile to try a hip brace at night to try to prevent progression of the hip out of the socket and hopefully improve the shape of the socket. I suggest you call us to set up an appointment in the next couple weeks to get this going. We can and will definitely talk about this more when we see you. 

So in summary this is a MILD problem now, but very likely to get worse. Bracing is our best hope to fix it without surgery, but the chance of success is low because the muscles around his hips are weak and may not keep them in the socket - so surgery may be the next recommendation if the brace fails UNLESS we are convinced that surgery would not make a difference. 

Needless to say I'm not very happy today!! Two days in a row we were told Rayden may need surgery in his future. He could really use your prayers.