Getting Up Early

My daughter and husband went to Detroit to see her retina surgeon, Dr. Trese, today.   They had a very early flight, requiring them to leave the house at 4:45AM.   As an adult, this is not exciting at all, but to my daughter, this was an adventure.

Last night she asked if she could set an alarm using the Amazon Echo in the children’s room.  We talked about what time would be good for her to get up, come downstairs and get her clothes and shoes on that had already been laid out for her.   She set the alarm and changed the volume to a lower setting, “because I don’t want to wake my brother up” she said.

Four o’clock didn’t come soon enough for her though as she came down at three to ask me if it was morning yet and was subsequently disappointed when I told her she had another hour to wait.   She wasn’t sleepy, she complained, but did manage to go back to sleep until her alarm went off.   She’s not been this excited for Christmas morning before.

She and my husband had an easy trip to Detroit today, getting back to enjoy rush hour traffic to meet her brother, Uncle Jonathan, Margaret and me for dinner.   She goes back in a month for a longer trip with an OR visit to find out more information.   To summarize what we know from today’s appointment:

Her vision has fractionally improved—possibly.   My husband and I aren’t sure.   But it does look most of the edema has resolved.   There doesn’t look to be additional pigmentation behind her retina and her pressure is within normal tolerances.   But her vision from this spring isn’t back, so there may be more in play, or it might be permanent damage.   That’s as yet unknown.

We asked about her right eye, which is totally blocked from vision with internal scar tissue that keeps regrowing.   They did a light test today and for the first time, my daughter didn’t even know he was shining the very bright light at her eye.   You can see a flashlight through your finger, this is a small membrane of tissue.   So that’s not good.   Will Dr. Trese address the right eye?  Possibly, although it might be pointless.   He wants to wait a bit to find out more with the left eye first.

The Big Boy Update Tiny Girl Bathroom Discussion:  In the back of the car on Monday my daughter asked her brother, “when you go to the bathroom do you hold your penis with your hand?”  He thought and said, “sometimes”.   And while this is a cute conversation between children, I wonder if my daughter even knows what a penis looks like and how she realized it might be something that needed holding for someone who stood up while they went to the bathroom.