Friday, April 30, 2010

Bleeding hearts and other parts

This year my bleeding hearts plant is HUGE!

It's never been more than about 2 feet in height and
this year it is 4 feet tall and about as wide.

My only guess as to why it is doing so well is that
we don't have kittens playing in the flower bed this year.



We had a some rain and thunder showers last night and
this morning it was freakishly warm and humid.

Forecasters are predicting more storms today
and some might even be severe.



Chyann and I took a drive down to the Mayo Clinic
in Rochester, MN yesterday.
(It was a beautiful 230 mile round trip drive)
She sees an Pediatric Ophthalmologist there because
she has Amblyopia.

Amblyopia is when the brain and eyes don't work together.
The brain will favor one eye and vision will be normal, but in the
eye that is ignored by the brain vision does not develop.
If this condition is not caught early and treated the
the "blind" eye is permanent.

Thanks to a wonderful doctor that treated her when she
was an infant, she was identified as having this condition
early and began treatment at the age of 3 years old.

Treatment consists of either patching the "good" eye or
putting vision blurring drops in the "good" eye to make
the "bad or lazy" eye see. And when
I say see I do mean see. The brain and eye have to
form completely new connections for vision to happen.

Chyann began wearing glasses and patching for up to
10 hours a day for the first year.
In subsequent years the amount of patching was
down to 2 hours a day with an end to patching
when she was 5.

It was HORRIBLE at first!
She was basically blind and would run into walls!
Talk about devastation when your baby would
cry and cry because they couldn't see.

BUT, very quickly she began developing vision
and then it wasn't soo bad after a while.
Lots of treats and special stuff were good
motivators for wearing the patch.


Good news from her doctor is that her vision
continues to improve (because she always
wears her glasses) and he believes that
by the time she is 15, glasses wont even
be necessary for her!!

Can you believe that?
I am soo thrilled for her!

To think that because I practically tortured the poor
kid to wear the patch her vision in her
"good" eye is 20/20 and the "bad or lazy" eye is 20/25!



A good day in parenting land for me!



6 comments:

Suzy said...

That is great news!!!! She is so cute and getting so big.
Love your flowers. Not many of those growing up here.

crochet lady said...

It's amazing what our bodies can do and the dedication of a good momma sure does help too!

Aunt Krissy said...

Way to go Chyann! Nice looking bleeding hearts.

Anonymous said...

I AM SO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)



-AWESOME ONE



YOU SHOULD KNOW WHO THAT IS!!!!!!!!!
Incase you don't know who that is it's Chyann!!!:)

Anonymous said...

Chyann, you are awesome! thats great news about your eyes.. wish I didnt have to wear glasses..
Rose

PAK ART said...

Way to go MOM! It is hard to do the hard things with our kids. Too bad that at the time they can't appreciate that we do it for their own good. I'm so happy for her - she's got way better vision than I do!