Just As Expected

2/1/2010 - Appointment With Dr. Zaidman

No surprise here...Emily needs eyelid surgery. Dr. Zaidman had no hesitation about what our next step should be. After once again her left eye lit up bright green, indicating that the cornea was still scratched and not healing, he immediately told the Resident who was observing that the next step in treating this would be to do the eyelid surgery. My heart sank...I knew it was coming, but that didn't make it any easier to hear. He briefly explained about the procedure and told me that he wanted me to bring Emily back in the next day to see Dr. Bortz, another doctor who worked with him who would perform the surgery.

It wasn't a guarantee, just what he suggested she needed. He told me it was completely up to Dr. Bortz and how he felt we should proceed. He went as far as saying that the "scratch" wasn't really a scratch, but more like some form of a corneal ulcer (yet he said ulcer wasn't really the right word either). He thinks that the dryness in her eye that is caused by her (supposedly) not closing her eye all the way at night or blinking often enough, it what caused this scratch, ulcer or whatever it is to happen and not allow it to heal.

The theory is this: Because of the glaucoma, her left eye is larger than normal and doesn't allow her eyelid to close all the way or blink normally. If a few stitches are put into the corner of her eyelid, making the opening of her eye smaller and enabling her to close her eye more easily and more frequent, the dry eye will go away and allow the (whatever it is) to heal.

I'm really not liking the sound of this surgery, and who knows how long she will need to have the stitches in. Isn't this a little drastic?

I guess the appointment with Dr. Bortz tomorrow will give us some more answers.

For now, Dr. Zaidman told me to stop using the Tobrex ointment that we had been using to treat the scratches in both eyes. Maybe he felt it wasn't doing anything? I don't know...but instead of that, we will now be using the Systane Dry Eye ointment every 3-4 hours...until Dr. Bortz decides what to do.