It was more than 2 years ago when my youngest daughter, Keziah, had undergone an eye surgery. At the age of 3, she needed to have a eye surgery due to 'exotropia' or uncontrolled eye muscle movement which tends to have her iris directed outwards. Her pediatric opthalmologist needed to re-attach the nerve behind her eyeballs at the right place to correct the direction of her iris. As a therapy, she needed to wear eyeglasses afterwards.
I can still remember the fear I had when my 3-year-old needed to undergo an eye surgery in Makati Medical Center. This could be a major operation and besides, it involves a very vital organ---the eyes. I needed to choose between the pain from the eye surgery and the exotropia but I chose the general anaesthesia to save the health of my daughter.
At 3 years old, she was very innocent then but she already can feel the pain of all the injections she had. She actually had a phobia. She kept on hugging me and didn't want to let go until I fetched her to the operating room. It was only after the effect of the anaesthesia that I was able to leave her freely. However, as I saw her as she suddenly fell to sleep a few second after injecting the anaesthesia into her dextrose, I felt that my heart was dying! I never wanted to leave her but the doctor told me to do so. I went out of the operating room and sat in the waiting area outside. I was crying then. I know this was just an 'eye surgery' but the picture of my child as she suddenly fell down to sleep kept on flashing into my mind. I never saw her that way for knowing her, Keziah is a very hyperactive kid and she only stops when she sleeps. I never left the operating room until the Dr. Mary Rose Teodoro came out of the operating room after 2 hours. She talked to me and told me that everything was ok and that Keziah is in the recovery room.
I immediately went inside the recovery room and was so afraid to see my kid with all the tubes and apparatuses connected to her body. She had an oxygen apparatus on her nose. She had a heart-beat monitor on her finger and lots of tubes on her chest. She had her both eyes covered and she was sleeping soundly. I waited for her to wake up. Suddenly, she cried, louder and louder and was telling me, "Yung eyes ko mommy, wala kong makita!" I tried to calm her down and told her not to rub her eyes but it took some time to comfort her.
After more than an hour of monitoring in the recovery room, it was now time for her to rest privately in our room. She slept again with her eyes covered. At dawn, she asked for food and I was happy to see her eating crackers and trying to feel the Chocolait with her eyes covered, as I try to feed her. At least, she is improving and she didn't cry anymore. The next morning, we visited her pediatric opthalmologist. She checked her eyes, removed the cover and told us that everything was doing good. We were released from the hospital on the same day. The next check-up followed after 1 week and she had her eyeglasses on at the grade of +1.50 and +1.75 on each eye.
After more than 2 years of wearing eyeglasses and constant check-up with Dr. Teodoro, the grade of her eyeglasses now lowered to +1.00 and +1.50. There was a big improvement and her exotropia now only becomes intermittent and is acceptably improving.
Meanwhile, I noticed that Kaira, my 7-year old, incorrectly copies her assignments. She also complains that she cannot clearly see the blackboard. As we recently had Keziah's eye check-up in the Asian Hospital with the same pediatric opthalmologist, I also had Kaira's eyes checked-up. As expected, Kaira has astigmatism and need eyeglasses at -1.75 and -2.25. Good to know, it could be corrected and 1-month wearing of eyeglasses could help.
Well, who would not expect these kids' eye problems. I started wearing eyeglasses at the age of 9 and tried using contact lenses at the age of 16. Probably it's genetic but lifestyle has a great effect as well. But at least, there are certain technologies and professionals who could implement good eye technologies then.
I just hope everything will be fine with my kids and that their eyesight will be improved further after the therapy.
-maron-
19october2008
22:25 hrs
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