Ophthalmologist - yay!

In the past two years, there have only been a handful of times when I have been truly happy coming back from any of our many -ologist appointments. Typically we get some good news sandwiched in with bad news. But today's trip to the pediatric ophthalmologist was different!

In July, doctors at the Duke Eye Center diagnosed Will with Cortical Visual Impairment. He did alright, but not great, when presented with some toys and lights to visually track.

Well today, Will totally ROCKED the visual tracking tests. He did so well, in fact, that they brought in another technician to do the next round of vision tests. We didn't even get to round 2 in July.

So the tech brought out these white boards with black stripes on them to do a Teller Visual Acuity test, also known as a preferential looking test. Will did really well, and when they charted his progress, he was below "normal vision" (which was not a surprise), but the wonderful thing here is that HE MADE IT ONTO THE CHART! Way to go, Will!!

When the visual acuity testing was done, we saw the doctor. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw the progress that Will has made in the past 6 months. He was genuinely impressed, and even told me that he thought Will's CVI was "mild." He ALSO told me that because of the continual progress that Will has made with his vision, he expects that trend of improvement will continue steadily.

We go back again in 6 months, at which time they'll do the same visual acuity tests to determine if Will has made more progress, and will also test his actual vision again. A lot of children with CVI benefit from wearing glasses. Last time they checked Will's vision, he was slightly near-sighted (damn Baldauf-Loss genes! ha) but nothing that warranted corrective lenses. So we'll see what happens (no pun intended).

Hope you are having a good day. We Slaviks are floating on Cloud 9 with the exciting news about Will's vision, and the amazing amount of pride we have in him! And thanks to Kathy, Will's Governor Morehead pre-school teacher, for all the hard work. Your dedication and enthusiasm helped us get to this spot!

Inspiration

As the parents of twins, and one with special needs, Nate and I are often asked how we do it... how do we hold it together, keep track of things, keep our motivation up when things are looking down... What we find is more often than not, we find our inspiration in our children.

We always knew that Will wanted to move... since we started with aquatic therapy, he just can't get enough kicking and bouncing. He also showed us early on that he knew the motions to crawl, he just didn't have the muscle control to make it happen. So our physical therapist Ilana (hi Ilana!) brought over a new "toy" for us to play with on Friday. Its called the Creepster Crawler, and it basically holds Will in the right position to allow him to crawl, but provides him the support and the wheels necessary to actually get up off the floor and go somewhere.

Now keep in mind that whenever a new piece of equipment shows up, Nate and I find ourselves less than thrilled. We know that it is the best thing for Will, but it also represents one more step away from "normal." It also represents our dining room turning more and more into the "Will Equipment Room."

But we LOVE the Creepster Crawler, and I think that after looking at the pictures, you'll understand why. It took Will a little while to get used to the contraption, and to feeling secure and safe enough to hold up his head. But after a while, he really got into it. For those of you who know our house, he went from the dining room to the front door with some assistance in less than 5 minutes!

There wasn't a dry eye in our house as we watched our little guy push his way across the floor. We were just so proud of him. You can see in the photo of Will and Nate the sheer excitement and joy on both of their faces. It was truly inspirational.

Now we're on a search for some type of grippy sock or shin guard or knee pad to put onto Will's legs so that his socked feet don't just slip across the floor. We can't wait until it sounds like a basketball court in our house!