Nicholas had an eye exam today and the results were not what we wanted. His ROP has aggressively progressed. He has Aggressive Posterior ROP in Stage 3, Zone 2 with Plus Disease. He will be having laser surgery later this week to hopefully stop the progression. Stage 3 means the blood vessels behind his retina have grown and formed a ridge and new blood vessels are growing on the ridge. This can cause the retina to detach and cause blindness. The laser surgery will hopefully stop the progression but it effects his peripheral vision. He will lose that but they said that it wasn't developed at 24 weeks and it doesn't develop outside the womb. So he has never had peripheral vision so if he loses it he won't know the difference. There is a 15-20% chance the surgery will not stop the progression. He will most likely need glasses and might have issues with crossed or lazy eyes or one may be stronger than the other. They can work with what ever the outcome is.
His feeds were increased to 35ml over an hour every 2 hours and he is tolerating them well.
He hasn't been having as many spells of forgetting to breath and dropping his heart rate. They think he gets over stimulated easily and stresses out causing that to happen. He is better with it at night when it is dark and quiet.
Dr. Smith, the neurologist, still wants to go ahead with the shunt surgery next week as long as he recovers well from the eye surgery.
Kenny had the exact same thing. He had the lazer surgery before he came home. He is doing great! No need for glasses...yet, and the ROP is gone with no real damage to his eyes. The only thing that I notice is that he is very sensitive to light...even at 21 months old. Good luck with everything! You've got yourself a little fighter!
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