Still Closed

My daughter still insists on keeping her left eye closed after surgery.   There isn’t anything wrong with this and from those we’ve talked to who’ve had cataract or other eye surgery, the light sensitivity post-surgery can be very dramatic and even painful.

I called Dhruti, our children’s Play Therapist, for some advice and she gave us good information on what to expect and how to work with the situation instead of against it.   First, she reminded me that our daughter is of feisty temperament.   She isn’t going to wait that long before she will adventure into opening her eye on her own, but we can facilitate matters.

We shouldn’t try to cajole or demand her to get her to open her eye, this will backfire.   We should tell her the doctors made her eye better and we know she can see, but she’s going to have to open her eyes to find out.    Don’t push her, tell her things like, “whenever you’re ready, you’ll open your eyes and see for yourself”.

My child needs to have something in it for her, some motivation to get something she wants.   We’ve been letting her listen to shows on her iPad without looking at it (something she’s never wanted to do without trying to look before).   The message now is, “if you want to use the iPad you need to open your eyes.  If you don’t want to open your eyes, that’s okay, you can use the audio book reader or listen to music on the iPod or find something else to do.”   Basically make her a little bored.

The terrible stinging from the drops six times a day is diminished significantly and light sensitivity has already changed a little.   Yesterday she had to have the eye covered with a hand at all times, even with the eye shut.   Today she’s wearing her sunglasses and has been okay with the blinds open some of the time (when we can sneak them in and the sun isn’t blaring directly in).  She’s sitting up and eating and can manage to have the sunglasses off while we do the drops.

The most interesting thing from the day was this morning when she asked my husband, “why am I getting so much light, even with my eyes closed?”   Her doctor messaged me today asking how things were going and agreed, the question about light through her eyelid was a good sign.

The Big Boy Update:  My son’s teacher at school had to leave unexpectedly for the remainder of the school year.   He gets told on Monday she won’t be returning.   I’m not sure how he’s going to take it but we’re planning on having him see Dhruti, our Play Therapist, after he finds out to see if she can get a read on how he’s faring.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  while talking with dad at dinner, my daughter had a conversation about how people age.   She said, “first you’re a toddler, and then kid, and then teenager, and then grown up, and then Mimi, and then dead maybe, and then maybe Gramps’s father and then I don’t know what.”