More Surgery for the Gracer

Tomorrow morning, these baby blues are getting surgery.

We've mentioned before she has nystagmus.  This is a permanent neurological condition where the eyes shake slightly from side to side.  This clearly makes focusing on something pretty tough.  People with nystagmus usually can find one place where the eyes are completely still, and therefore vision much more clear.  For Grace, this is with her eyes looking all the way down and right.  Obviously looking down and right doesn't allow her to properly take in Elmo, or Anna and Elsa, or a teacher, who are front and center.....so she tilts her head to the right and turns it to the left so that her "down and right" eyes are placed front and center.  

Exhibit A:

Tilting the head like this is tiring.  And probably not all that comfortable.  And it might even affect the way she eats by not allowing her jaw to close properly.  So they do surgery to detach and re-attach a few of the eye muscles so that her still point is more center and she can focus best without turning or tilting her head.  And, as a happy side effect, the same surgery often lessens the degree of shaking that the eyes do in general.

So while detaching/re-attaching eye muscles isn't top of our list for either of our children, we feel good about giving Grace the chance to see and take in the world better.   

And it just so happens that she's due for some new ear tubes.  Her darned tiny ear canals are still collecting fluid and affecting her ability to hear and deliver pitch perfect tone in her daily singing performances.  This might also allow her to tone the tunes down to a more manageable volume so all of New York doesn't hear her daily serenade.   So we will minimize her exposure to anesthesia and get her third set of tubes placed at the same time.

Tomorrow morning....7am...say some prayers for these:

and these:

Thank you!