Strabismus Watch '09

So I've had this eye condition called "strabismus" my whole life, which means, essentially, that my eye muscles on one side are weak and can't work effectively to keep my left eye focused and in line with my right. Because we know this condition can be genetic, we've been keeping an eye out (ha!) for it with Maia since her birth. Of course, newborns tend to have the wandering eye thing regardless, and we hadn't seen any signs of it since her eyes lined up and started to work well together in her first few months of life.

But, over the last three days or so, we've noticed that her left eye loses its focus and seems to cross inward towards her nose occasionally. Because we've all been so tuned-in to it, I think we caught it literally on the first day it happened. (Papa Stan noticed it first, and then Brian and I did the following day.)

Maia and I went to see her doctor on Wednesday, and, of course, she couldn't bring out any signs of it while we were there. It is very intermittent and occasional, in that we'll go entire days without seeing it at all. We're still on top of it, though, and we're heading out to see a specialist sometime in the next couple of weeks. Of course, this being Ann Arbor, the U Mich system has several doctors who specialize in pediatric opthamology and strabismus; this is one of those cases where being "where the action is" in terms of health care means we can be right on top of this thing from the start.

I had a couple of eye surgeries as a child, and I've worn glasses since 18 months of age (and, as my Mom would tell you, I never broke or lost a pair of glasses. That says something about my personality, doesn't it??). It's likely that Maia's case, if she does indeed have it, wouldn't require any surgery, but we're going to stay on top of it nevertheless.

So, after two years of no health issues at all, not anything worse than a mild case of the croup, we might be looking at something a bit more in-depth. Perhaps. But still, it's no big deal, and really---how cute would Maia look in glasses?! :)