On Wednesday we went in to see Dr. Silverberg, the twins opthamologist. You may remember that he was featured during the Childrens Miracle Network telethon we were in. Our main concern during this visit was Derby’s vision. As always, when it comes to medical issues, he seems to be the one we worry about more. We had our IFSP (Individualized Family Service Plan) meeting last week to discuss what will happen with therapy once the twins turn 3. Loen will no longer be eligible as she has caught up to most of her peers. But Derby will need help for a while longer. One of the recurring concerns his therapists bring up is his vision. What does he see, what doesn’t he see and how is he processing these images. It is all a guessing game until he can tell us what is going on. Tadd and I were ready with a barrage of questions regarding our little man. What we weren’t ready for was that Derby’s eyes, anatomically speaking are fine, but his sister’s that have gotten progressively worse. She went from minor nearsightedness (common in babies) to a prescription of -7 & -9 in 2009. Anything over -6 is considered severely nearsighted.  On this visit they measured her to be -12 and -14. A huge jump. They tested her a couple of times to be sure. Without her glasses Loen is legally blind, sigh….. She is fine and will have to see the eye doctor every 6 months to be sure her vision is not worsening. We asked if there was a chance she could lose her vision. It is very rare but that would be the outcome if the retina was to detach.

I really shouldn’t get worked up but it is times like this that make we wonder what could we have done to prevent all this. If we would have hired movers when I was pregnant instead of doing it ourselves would they have gone to term? If I rested more? I know it is ridiculous to rehash this but it just comes to mind when yet another thing comes up. Again I feel bad because it is nothing life threatening just a bump in the road. But when I check on them in their cribs sleeping so soundly with their little pouty mouths hanging open, I want everything for them. I want the best. I fear for the day when some kid will make fun of their glasses or the way they walk. How am I going to protect them from everything yet let them live freely? This is motherhood huh?

On the upside she will be able to try out for Professor Trelawney in her high school production of Harry Potter.

Today we picked up her new glasses and she did seem to be happier. She was running around the house and getting into everything. She took off her glasses a few times but kept them on for the most part. Perhaps Derby can learn from her example! Below are some pics of them playing with their fab new water/sand table they got from Meemaw Lisa.

I can SEE you!

HA HA I’m not the only one who has to wear glasses now!

Let me help you with this Derby

I have a feeling we will be doing this a lot

She HAD to have the pink glasses

Private joke between twins

Derby threw his glasses in the water. Good thing Loen was there to rescue them

You need to wear them Derby

I love this table!

Someone got a little out of hand with splashing

Daddy’s beard is itchy

Derby decided he was over playtime

]]> http://thetadpoles.com/2009/05/20/family-of-foureyes/feed/ 4 http://thetadpoles.com/2008/12/29/oh-derby/ http://thetadpoles.com/2008/12/29/oh-derby/#comments Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:34:45 +0000 Hava http://thetadpoles.com/?p=604 Today Derby was up to his usual antics of putting the medical staff through their paces. We were scheduled for the first surgery at 7:30 (meaning we had to be there at 6:30 am). After all the usual paperwork they let me bring Derby into the OR and stay with him while they gave him gas to go to sleep then I had to leave. Strabismus surgery should only take around 1 hour so I was getting anxious as 9 am rolled around. Around 9:10 a nurse said they should be bringing Derby into the recovery room and they would come get us in 5 minutes. 5 minutes came and went, 10…..30…..almost an hour later they came to get us. Another nurse said he was having trouble waking up from the anesthesia. When we got to the recovery room Derby was quietly whimpering in a most pathetic, hoarse way. I picked him up and rocked him as they told us the real story of the delay. While extubating him he had laryngospasm. He wasn’t breathing, turned blue and his O2 sats dropped into the 40′s. The anesthesiologist reintubated him and gave him a medication to paralyze him. Tadd and I had been in the waiting room and heard a dinging noise, almost like a elevator bell when all this was happening. I thought perhaps that meant the surgery was over, no that was essentially their “all hands on deck” bell and the other staff ran to the O.R. One of our admitting nurses said she ran in when Derby was blue but they were able to reintubate him quickly. Tadd and I both asked how long he was hypoxic but they said it was only seconds. The anesthesiologist waited and watched him to be sure he would recover from the second time. This made it so the other surgeries were pushed back. When we finally got to be with him his O2 sats kept dropping between 88-92% on room air. We would give him a little oxygen and he would get better but the second the mask was pulled away his sats would drop again. We were so close to being admitted to the pediatric floor for observation but after 4 long hours Derby started to recover and we were given the ok to go home. Tadd and I are so grateful with the dedication the doctors and nurses showed my little Derbyman. Now we are exhausted and toying with the idea of going to bed at 7!

You know dad, I don’t think my eyes are that crossed. Yea, I think I am seeing a little straighter now. Sooooo we can leave right now, I can see the door…

Obviously the right hand wasn’t a good place to start an I.V.

Third time was a charm.

Obviously it takes a lot longer to wake up when you’ve been given anesthetics twice.

Crying bloody tears is always a little freaky

The kids are looking great. They are so busy these days. 

• Loen: On 12/10 she weighed 16 pounds 3 ounces and is 27 1/4″ long. She has learned to crawl on hyper drive so you cant turn your back on her for long. She has been practicing standing on her own. Usually for a second or two, then she realizes that no one is holding her and she will sit down. I love when she starts to get tired. She slows down and will lie on her belly and play, often singing or talking. So precious. She likes “grown-up food” better than purees lately. If I chop up cheese or turkey she will slowly inspect it, play with it then eat it. Purees she will just spit back into her hand then rub into the tray and her hair. Then there is Gerber Puffs, AKA baby crack. If you want to keep her quiet for a good 10-15 minutes on end just put her in her high chair with a small pile of puffs. She still doesn’t do three meals a day. She isn’t always interested in solid food and will prefer her bottle. Loen did much better with the switch from breast milk to formula than Derby did.  You would have thought there was cyanide kool-aid in the bottle the way he refused it. 
• Derby: Weighed 16 pounds 1 ounce and is 26 1/2″ long. The gap is really closing between the two of them. He has mastered saying “Hi” but is selective on when and who he says it to. It is funny that he will tell everyone hi then when I want him to he clams up. I have decided they can walk or talk but they cant do both yet. So Derby is my talker and Loen is my pseudo-walker. Derby has been making progress with therapy. He uses his left side more and they have been working with him to get into the crawl position. He likes to sit but has yet to get himself in the sitting position without help. Well if you don’t count that one time at Fauxma’s (they do EVERYTHING at Fauxmas!). We came back after running errands and Derby was sitting and playing with a toy. We asked if she put him in that position to which she replied no. She was doing something with Loen and turned around and saw Derby sitting, she thought he knew how to do it. He hasn’t done it since so it may have been a fluke. Derby is no longer wearing his glasses. The opthamologist said they werent working so he will go in for a revision surgery after Christmas. That was a bummer to hear, but in the grand scheme of things it isn’t that big of a deal. I have to say to myself “Hey, at least he can see!”. The doctor said something I wasn’t expecting; “Well I didn’t think the glasses would work but I wanted to try one more thing before we had to do another surgery”. What? Back up there fella! Never had you said before the glasses probably wouldn’t work. If we had known that I don’t think we would have sprung for the top of the line Italian retro glasses. We figured he would be wearing them for awhile so we got the sturdy ones. Whatever, he got a lot of attention from the ladies when he wore them.

As you can see in the picture below the helmet is really working. The scan on the left is before the helmet and the right is after wearing it for 1 1/2 months. They said he would have approximately 6 more weeks of wearing left. 

We have finally traded out the infant carriers for their big car seats. Tadd did some research and ended up returning the Britax that we had originally and got the Recaro Signo. These things are legit, lets just say if we ever needed to put the twins in a escape pod their seats would be perfect. I wasn’t aware until Tadd told me that Recaro is known for making auto racing seats. So I guess they would be at home in the back seat of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s car too.

They like to chew on a toothbrush, but when I try to brush their teeth all hell breaks loose.

Derby showing off his clean teeth

We drove the twins by the crazy Christmas house. My iPhone pic does not do this house justice. We were speculating how much this guys electricity bill must be in December

We stopped by the NICU yesterday to say hi and pick up a copy of the new Cottage Hospital Magazine. There was a picture of Derby and Dr. Donnelly that was on the third page.

Loen showing Martha how she can walk with help

Derby was a tired little guy but happy to see Li. You can really tell how much his eyes cross in this picture. Hopefully the surgery on the 29th will be successful.

Derby Boone

Hmm is this roadkill?

Loen still likes to take anything that her brother has

I believe I will be relieving you of your iPhone father

I don’t understand how Loen was the one who had to come early but Derby is the twin who got the most problems. You would think it would be the other way around. I cant complain because the issues that they have had to deal with are small compared to what they could have been.

Ok I should sign off as I doubt the twins will pack their clothes themselves. They are so LAZY!