Eye Exam Info

He's starting to not look as tiny!

Colt had his follow up eye exam today. We talked to the eye doc and she explained in more detail what is happening. Colt does have ROP (Retinopathy of Prematurity). As I said before, it is graded....I was incorrect in that it goes from one to five rather than four which I said in my last post. So he is at stage 2 right now. Stages 1 and 2 do not get treated unless they are progressing. Basically what happens is the blood vessels in the eye that form in a preemie sometimes do not form correctly because of unstable oxygen levels. They can attach to the retina and pull it away from the eye, which can cause blindness. The plan as of today is to watch him on a bi-weekly basis. His next exam is Sunday or Monday. They will check to see if it is stable, progressing or regressing. This condition can correct itself so we're hoping it does so he doesn't have to endure another surgery. If he does have more on his next exam, they will operate within 48 hours. They go in with a laser and burn off any of the blood vessels that have connected inappropriately, which will hopefully correct the problem. He'll most likely still need glasses even if he is treated as the laser does do some damage to the sight as well. It's weird because the laser will cause some sight loss itself to the peripheral sight, but without the surgery it can cause blindness. So I guess we're in for glasses for sure. In rare cases, the surgery has to be done twice if the condition continues after surgery. She said most cases are corrected with one surgery. Colt took the bottle 6 times in the last 24 hours, and mostly finished the whole feed at the bottle. He's doing really well with it, and seems to be sleeping much better in between feedings.