We're Getting Glasses!!

Haylie loves to climb under and sit on the bottom shelf of this bakers rack in the kitchen.

She gets this adorable look on her face everytime the phone or doorbell rings.
Looking at all the new toys Grandma bought for her--what a haul!!
Always such a happy girl

I'm posting some recent pictures of my girl just so you can see how adorable and happy she always is. But on a more serious note, yesterday was not so fun. Haylie had to have a brain MRI under anesthesia. I hadn't posted about this so far because we didn't know for sure what all was going to happen. We've been dealing with this issue since April. Everyone has been asking what is going on... so, I apologize ahead of time for the long post, but because we are also using this as our journal for Haylie, I wanted to get my thoughts down.

At our first trip to the international adoption clinic, Dr. Taylor referred us to the pediatric opthalmologist because she thought her left eye turned in just the slightest amount when her eye was covered and then uncovered. I had noticed it when we played peek-a-boo. UK has a great pediatric opthalmologist, but her 1st available appointment wasn't for 8 months, so we went to see another guy they had there instead--big mistake. Well, putting it nicely, I couldn't stand this guy. He talked to me like I was a complete idiot, and said "I'm sure she needs glasses" before he even looked at her eyes. When he examined her, he said she is extremely near-sighted in her left eye, and moderately near-sighted in the right. Said she had to wear glasses, and patch her good eye everynight. I really don't have any problem with her needing glasses. But when I said to him, "oh gosh, I don't know how I'm going to keep them on her--I can't even keep a hair bow in", he just snapped and said "Well, you might as well just sign her up for Braille then". I was so upset with him and the way he treated us, I decided to get a second opinion. I had a hard time believing she was as bad as he said since she can see to pick up a hair off the floor 3-4 feet away.

So, I took Haylie for a second opinion to an optometrist. This guy was very nice and really took a lot of time with her. He too got her left eye very near-sighted, but her right eye normal. He recommended another "third opinion" with another pediatric opthalmologist. So, even though this 3rd guy was "out of network" on our insurance, and we had to pay full price out of pocket (ouch), off we went to see him. He confirmed what the second guy said--that in her left eye she is really badly near-sighted (a -9 for anyone who knows what your eye prescription is) which is considered legally blind, but correctable. But her right eye is normal, which explains why she can seemingly see so well without glasses--she compensates with the good eye. However, on top of all of this, he said her optic nerves were small; a condition called "optic nerve hypoplasia". Evidently, with this condition 20% of the time there is also some brain abnormalities like pituitary/growth hormone deficiencies, and even some neurological problems. Luckily 80% of the time, there is no brain abnormality. He said she sure doesn't look like she has any of these, but that she needed a brain MRI to rule them out. Since he was out of our insurance network, I sure didn't want to have to pay for a MRI out of pocket, so I said I had to go back to UK. Soooo, long story short, I finally got into see the peds opthamologist who I should have seen in the first place for a 4th opinion. She confirmed the last 2, and also recommended the MRI but also doubted any problems other than the optic nerve hypoplasia, and she thought it was only a mild case. It is evidently a genetic defect--not necessarily caused by anything her birthmother did. Luckily it doesn't worsen overtime.

So yesterday was the day of the MRI. It was a VERY loooong day. Because they had to put her to sleep to do the test, she couldn't have any solid food after 7am, but the test wasn't until 1pm. Needless to say, that is not a good thing for a 2 year-old. She was pretty fussy and kept asking for milk or drink. We actually first had an appointment with the ear, nose, and throat doctor at 10:00. She recommended we put tubes in Haylie's ears because she has some fluid behind her eardrums, which might or might not be interfering with her speech development...(I'm inclined not to do that since she's not having any ear infections, but I'll keep you posted on that one). Then we went over to the hospital for the MRI. Of course Haylie was not a happy camper getting her IV started--poor baby was scared to death and just sobbed and sobbed. They let me go in while they put her to sleep, then shooed me out for the procedure which took about 45 minutes. She woke up fine and stayed drunk for a few hours. She was pretty funny when she first woke--couldn't even hold her head up but was talking saying "Hebbo" (hello) to everyone she saw. Luckily I was able to get the results today and it was totally normal--thank you God!!!

After she got pretty good and awake, we went and picked out and ordered her glasses and lenses. I still don't know how I'm going to keep them on her, since she STILL won't keep a hairbow on, but we will survive. They are supposed to be here in about a week, so I'll soon post some pictures of her in her cute little glasses.