Surgeries
Nothing recent, lucky for us but over the years, Emily had 3 surgeries.
Two for her eyes and one to control her drooling.
Emily has beautiful eyes
When Emily was little, she had a lazy eye (strabismus)
We patched her strong eye in the hope to reinforce her weak eye for aesthetic of course but mostly because Emily’s brain only uses one eye at the time. We were worried her brain would eventually stop using her right eye which could have meant that eventually Emily could lose her eye.
You are closing one of your eyes right now and slowly realizing that Emily doesn’t have 3D vision.
This no 3D vision combined with her mobility issues will forever create challenges for Emily as a change in color or texture on the floor could be a step. Whenever we are somewhere new, you can see Emily moving slowly and feeling ahead with her foot to confirm if it’s flat or if it is a step.
Back to her surgeries, the patch didn’t do much for her other than upset her so the surgeries were mentioned.
After asking for a second that said to put glasses on her, we got a third opinion, who said the surgery would be better so we agreed on the eye surgery.
Emily had her first eye surgery in Montreal when she was 4. We knew when we went in for her first surgery that she would need a second one. The first one loosen up some eye muscles while the second one tightened the other muscles. The surgeries were on both of her eyes and corrected the strabismus and her “V” syndrome (where she used mostly the top of her eyes)
Emily recovered nicely from the first surgery and a couple of years later, she had her second surgery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She recovered really nicely once again and today, her eyes are straight unless she’s exhausted.
And against all odds, I believe that sometimes, she uses both of her eyes together, this is mostly for table work and the black 3d glasses that were only at Disney awhile back but are now in theaters everywhere seem to also work for Emily.
This takes us to Emily’s third surgery when she was 7 or 8.
By that time, Emily was a drool machine. She always struggled with drooling and it got worst as she got older. In first and second grade, other kids react to that one kid who is always wet, wiped her mouth on her clothes and have a chin that is always irritated. Emily started to be self-conscious so we consulted and decided to go with another surgery.
Emily had her tonsils removed, some of her saliva ducts relocated lower in her throat and some of her saliva glands in her mouth burned.
She, once again, recovered quickly! She is quite a trooper!
Look at my girl, no more drooling and gorgeous eyes!
Surgeries are not for everybody and we didn’t chose to go that way easily. We looked at options and weighted the pros and cons. In our case, these were worth it!
A to Z Challenge 2016 – Lessons from my Daughter (PR) #800
💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
NEW!!! We have a facebook page: If you want short updates and timely pictures of the little things that are happening in our life, please like and follow Lessons from my daughter‘s page.
You can also find me on Twitter at @plebrass
I am on Pinterest too: Lessons from my Daughter
I just discovered StumbleUpon but I have no clue what to do there: I believe you can find me under plebrass but I need to spend quality time there.
Find more about about Cri du Chat syndrome at 5p- Society
Emily has a her own page in the family stories , you can find it here: Emily
Lessons from my daughter 
I remember one of those surgeries . Oh how incredibly worthwhile huh?
So worth it! I’m so glad we did those when we did them.
Love the story once again. Emily is truly amazing.
Yeah… She’s kinda amazing 😊
I’m so thrilled that the surgeries helped Emily. When my son was an infant, he would often have one or the other eye wander. As he became a toddler, it became more rare until it stopped. When he was six and was having trouble reading, a developmental optometrist evaluated him and he did several months of vision therapy (like PT for the eyes). It made a big difference in his ability to track and some difference in his convergence. Fortunately, he see’s in 3D, but I read that going to see a 3D movie was helpful for people to be able to see in 3D. And for some, once they were able to see in 3D even one time, it was enough for their system to “get it” and be able to repeat the experience. So I was fascinated to read about Emily using 3D glasses. I do notice that when my son is very tired, he’ll struggle with things, like words (he was speech delayed). Thanks for sharing this story.
We were told that really rarely does the brain decide to use the two eyes together and that this was mostly aesthetic but I think she uses her eyes together and she loves 3D movies. We worked with an orthoptist before, between and after the surgeries to reinforce her eyes but they never said her eyes were working together. We saw a new optometrist last year and didn’t give her Emily’s history. Within a minute of working with Emily she turned to me and asked me what was going on? I asked her what she noticed before giving her Emily’s history. It appears that she’s still only using one eye at the time but that both eyes are at 20/20 vision which she stated was unusual as the brain should have picked a favorite eye and the other should be weaker…. The brain is such a strange and beautiful thing…
Wow! That is so cool. One of Emily’s superpowers, for sure.
she is so lovely and glad the surgeries were successful )
I am so glad it all worked out!
Such a lovely girl and so lucky to have parents who love her so much. ❤❤❤❤❤❤
She’s extremely lovable 😍. Her strength and determination to overcome challenges are inspiring. She’s not a quitter!
Awesome ❤❤❤❤
What a fighter she is! I have never been through a surgery myself, save a minor one for the ganglion cyst on my wrist (which doesn’t seem to back off no matter how many tries from my end!) but to see that Emily has put on a strong front is inspiring… 🙂
She is strong 😊 I’m glad you find her inspiring.
Your stories are quite amazing. Emily sounds like a trooper and so do you.
Thank you! Emily is quite amazing! 😊 I’ve always felt that she has her own path and she has the strength to get through it all, I am just helping her along the way. She’s the one working so hard to get there, her determination is exceptional
What a beautiful daughter you have!
Thank you! She is quite amazing!