Eye Doc

So this morning we had our first appointment with our new opthamologist, Dr. V.  I won't use his full name because I don't want anybody stealing him away from us!!  He's sooooooooo nice.  I'm really glad Nurse MacLeod picked him out for us. 

Leah does indeed have an abrasion on her left eye, but on the bright side the right eye (old abrasion) is healing nicely and Dr. V only saw a few marks on her cornea that would indicate it's still not 100% healed.

I showed him the list of eye gels and ointments that Sara was kind enough to find for me and we went over what we should try and what we should hold off on.  He said Restasis would be like putting kerosene in her eye right now, so we won't do that!  And he was totally sympathetic to our problem where Leah wants to rub her face because of the pain but rubbing her face will only aggravate  the situation - not to mention her skin.

I can't say enough good things about Dr. V.  First of all, he trained at Jefferson up in Philly, so there's enough reason for me to like him.  (I was wearing my Villanova hoodie today and so he asked if I went there - I said 'No but I'm from Philadelphia and I actually went to Temple' - and so that's how I learned that he studied at Jefferson).  Then on the wall of his office were 2 before and after photos of little kids who had a lazy eye and had the surgery done to correct it.  When I was a kid I had a lazy eye and when I was 14 I had surgery done. 
Dr. V had stepped out of the exam room for a second and when he came back I was pointing out the photos to Jeff and doing a kind of 'Awwww!! Look!' thing.  Dr. V started to say how it is correctable and if you see someone with a funny eye you should let them know that.  So I just smiled and told him that I used to be that kid.  Then we talked about my surgery, and how he knew the doctor who performed my surgery, and that my old doctor had actually passed away last year. 

Small world huh?  So anyway, Dr. V wants to see Leah again next Wednesday just to see how her eyes are.  There is typically a 6 week wait time to see him but when I got home and called to schedule the appointment, the girl on the phone knew exactly who I was and it wasn't any problem at all. 

But ..... (spoiler alert: blessing coming up) the nicest thing about Dr. V is that while his practice does not typically accept our insurance, he is willing to see Leah, if need be: for free. He actually said 'If you don't mind I'd be willing to see her for free'.  If I don't mind?!  Say whuuuut?

So let me get this straight ... we've got a nearby, pediatric opthamologist who is a genuinely nice, caring, and compassionate guy who actually communicates with his staff.  He doesn't act like Jeff and I don't know what we're doing and he's willing to treat my multifaceted special needs child for free?   OK!

So when we came home I went online and ordered lots of different stuff from DrugStore.com .... eye drops, eye gel and eye ointments.  I also ordered a new cool mist humidifier to keep in the living room.  We already have a cool mist humidifier right next to Leah's crib but I figured another one for the living room wouldn't be a bad idea.  I must do all I can to try to avoid this new problem from continuing.  Leah just isn't her normal happy self with all this eye pain.  And add her teething pain to it and gosh, she must want to just rip her head off. 

And here's the little girl from when we came home from our appointment:

Did someone say 'Pooped'?


P.S. A special thank you to Patrice for reminding me about the zinc oxide content of the different diaper creams.  I actually ran out tonight to Target to pick up some eye ointment, nursery water and diaper cream and I picked up some of the dead fish smelling stuff.  : )