With a preemie beginning comes a few things to look out for down the road, one of those things being eye health and sight development issues.
Preemies of a certain young gestational age and/or low weight threshold are at greater risk of having several eyesight issues show up within the first year. One of those issues is ROP and the other is eyesight problems.
Six weeks after Arthur was born, an ophthalmologist checked his eyes for improper blood vessel growth deep within the eye. ROP occurs when abnormal blood vessels grow and spread throughout the retina, the tissue that lines the back of the eye. These abnormal blood vessels are fragile and can leak, scarring the retina and pulling it out of position. This causes a retinal detachment. (National Eye Institute website).
Every three to four weeks, we would go back to the ophthalmologist to get checked. We did this four times. The visits were extremely unpleasant and very stressful, requiring that teeny Arthur be held down and his eyelids be held open with spidery looking torture clamps (I'm sure they have a real name) for a very thorough exam. No one had a good time. Nope.
After all those checks, we learned that Arthur's eyes were free from ROP and he had no risk of developing it anymore. Which was great news!
After his first birthday, we then needed to get his eyesight checked by another ophthalmologist (try spelling that word later without looking it up). It's not uncommon for preemie eyesight development, which would normally happen inside the controlled environment of the womb, to get a little wonky in the outside world.
We needed to assess if his eyes were matching in strength in order to preemptively correct a possible lazy eye developing. A "lazy eye" happens when the brain chooses one eye to rely on and control because the other is a different strength. The brain loves to choose the path of least resistance, so it will choose the "weaker" eye and let the strong one drift either in toward the middle or out to the side (or so the ophthalmologist told me and I hope I'm remembering it correctly). This is why it's so important to have matching or close to matching eye strength in both eyes when we are young.
Using a set of lenses that she held up to Arthur's eyes while looking through her ophthalmoscope (a handheld tool about the size of a flashlight. It has a light and different tiny lenses that allow the provider to view the back of the eyeball.) The doctor determined that Arthur did have mismatched eyes. When looking closely, I could tell that his right eye was indeed beginning to turn ever so slightly inward as his brain was giving up on trying to control eyes with two different sight abilities.
So off to the optometrist with a prescription for glasses we went!
We tried on about six pairs of Gizmo brand baby glasses, but the moment the optometrist put on the third pair, I knew they were the ones. Squared off and olive green, they made Arthur look handsome and cute as ever. No other shape or color could compare.
Gizmo is a great brand because of how flexible the frames are (you can smoosh them flat with the ear pieces completely splayed out), plus they can either be held on with a soft adjustable head band, behind the ear hooks, or both.
A week later we went back to the office so that Arthur could try on his glasses. It was a very exciting moment. A few blinks, some looking around, and he was totally into it. He pointed at a computer, then the mirror, then the display of glasses behind the optometrist. Then he turned around and waved at the receptionist, pointed at a person in the waiting area, and promptly declared to the world "Da-DA!" which, if you live with Arthur, you know is a stamp of approval. Everything good is Da-da.
We thanked the office and headed out to the hallway where he looked around like he had never seen such a place before. He pointed at the pharmacy entrance and softly said "da-da". He pointed at some passersby: "da-da". He pointed at the sliding doors at the other end of the hall: "Da-Da". He walked over to a potted plant and determined it was Da-DA! as well.
In four month's time, Arthur will go back to the ophthalmologist to get his eyes checked again and asses his progress. We are to keep his glasses on for as many hours as possible during the day to help his eyes match their strengths. In a few years, we may even find out that he doesn't need glasses at all. For now, we will start with wearing his glasses for twenty minute intervals with breaks to let him get used to them. He already wears a sunhat often, so he's not unfamiliar with keeping something on his head. So far, he only tries to take them off when he's gotten tired of the feeling of the prescription lenses making his eyes work a little harder, at which point we take a break.
We are very, very happy that Arthur gets to be part of the glasses club while his eyes are getting some help. And HOLY COW it's the cutest thing I've ever seen.