Still no results from Lydia’s VER a couple of weeks ago. Apparently results have been read and interpreted, waiting for the transcriptionist to get to the bottom of the pile of tapes.
Otherwise, Lydia is doing very well. She had her first day of school today, she is now a 1st grader. The paragraph below is some very exciting news about her vision. I thought I should also mention I tried to test her vision myself at my optometrist appointment . The big E was projected on the wall , I held her a different angles and didn’t tell her what she was looking at. Unfortunately, all she was able to see was the light from the projector. Just thought that might keep things in perspective for everyone. Oh well, the news below is very exciting and more functional for her right now anyway.
We took our annual before school vacation in St Louis and had a lot of fun! Our highlight was the Zoo. Lydia was able to see the Asian elephant and the black rhinos. They were all back in corners until we came up to the fence, then they made their way right up in front of us. The elephant put on a little show with his trunk, flapping his ears. They seemed to really know Lydia wanted to see them, and she did!!! She pointed to each of them and said, “Wow I can see him!” She was able to follow each animal as they moved around. It was so cool! On our way from moms house to St Louis, I asked her if she was able to see anything out the window and she said “I can see the sky and I think that is grass” The landscape outside was rolling hills of beautiful green trees and a bright blue sky. It is so nice to know she is beginning to have an understanding of the world around her. She is still very much visually impaired and needs to be prompted to use her vision, but she really tries when I ask her. I am always a proud momma.
Thank you all again for your prayers and well wishes during this very exciting time! I will update when I have some news.
August 22nd, 2008
We are having a great summer! We went to Florida so Lydia could experience the beach. I had been promising her to go for the last year, finally when summer school let out we set off for St Pete Beach. She is such a good traveler. She had a good time experiencing the ocean,making sandcastles with mom and granny, learning to dogpaddle in the pool. She has also been busy travelling to visit lots of family this summer. There seems to not be enought Lydia to go around- everyone wants to be near her!
Lydia had a vision test today called a Visual Evoked Response. She had to sit in a chair with electrodes(sensors) hooked up to her head to measure her brain and nerve response to visual information and watch a television screen. She got to wear a pirate patch over her eye, even said “Arg!!” The screen she watched looked like a black and white checkerboard that changed or reversed the black/white squares so it appeared to be moving. I could barely watch it myself-nauseating!! They put the screen at about 5 feet away then almost in front of her face. I didn’t get to see the computer screen but the tech doing the test said the closer one was “producing some measureable adn reproducable waves”. Of course he cannot interpret any findings, we will have to wait a week or so to find out the results, the neurologist will have to read and interpret the test first. Lydia did well with the test, only got upset because she thought she would have to wear a sticker patch over her eye – had to do that at the other doctors office in St Louis the last time she had it over a year ago. After she figure out nothing would hurt she was just fine, almost fell asleep. Our appointment lasted about 1 1/2 hours. I will let you all know the results when I know next week. She has an appointment on Thursday where they will sedate her and dilate her eyes, take pictures of the head of the optic nerve and compare previous pictures.
Thank you all for your continued support and prayers. I will keep you updated!!
August 6th, 2008
