Trip to Miami

I'll start this off with a little background for any one who didn't already know. Right about the time Isabella turned 1 we started noticing that her right eye was turning in or "crossing". We took her to a Pediatric Ophthalmologist and she was diagnosed with Ambliopio and accommodative esotrophia. Most commonly referred to as a lazy eye. We started patching the good eye a few hours a day and when she was about 2 we tried glasses. Of course trying to get a 2 year old old to wear glasses is a near impossible feat! We also tried Atropine in her good eye to blur the vision and strengthen her other eye. All along we have known that there was a strong possibility that she would one day need surgery to correct the crossing in her eye. So we did everything we could to strengthen her eye on its own as much as possible and of course as she got older she got better at actually wearing her glasses.

Well... Last summer, about the end of July, I took Isabella for her regular check up and guess what her doctor said??? That's right, he said "It looks like Isabella's eyes have improved as much as they are going to and it is time to do the surgery". That would have been great except we were moving to Costa Rica in less than 2 weeks! So I talked to the doctor about the possibility of doing the surgery when we came home for Christmas, and that was the plan. Well Unfortunately Isabella's doctor got cancer last fall and was undergoing Chemo and was of course unable to do the surgery. He did however recommend that we go to Miami, to the Bascomb-Palmer Eye Institute. They are the #1 eye clinic in the world and he said his parents had taken him there when he was a child.

So in February Dustin and I decided that we would indeed take Isabella to Miami to have her eye surgery. Well, actually, Dustin stayed home to work and be with the other kids and i took Isabella to Miami. We flew out Tuesday April 15. She was scheduled to see the doctor and have a bunch of tests done on Wednesday and then have the surgery on Thursday. We went to the doctor as scheduled on Wednesday and the started doing the different tests on her eyes. After about 3 hours we saw the doctor, along with a "fellow" doctor from China, a 4th year resident and a couple other student doctors whose ranks I don't know. Isabella was a little hesitant about being looked at by all these people, but I explained it to her like this: Remember a couple of weeks ago when we went on a field trip at school to Zoo Ave to study the birds? Well instead of studying birds these guys are here to study you and your eye. She seemed to accept this and we continued with the testing. Well in the end all of the doctor's agreed that Isabella's eye had improved and that right now there was no need for surgery! There is still a possibility she could need it in the future, but right now, with the glasses, her eye is doing great. As a parent, of course this was a relief. On the way out of the clinic I asked Isabella if she was glad she didn't have to have surgery. She quite angrily replied: No, because that means we came all this way for nothing!

So we ended up staying in Miami until Friday and then went to Carley's for a few days, back to Miami and home on Wednesday. Of course I shopped like a mad woman after being out of the United States for 4 months. I think Isabella has had enough shopping to last her a good long time.

Thankfully everything went well at home. We were gone for Kaylee's Birthday, but friends of ours invited the family over and had a small party for her.

Here are a couple of pictures Isabella and I took at the beach in Florida.