Unbelievable News

Connor had an eye appointment today. This is with the same doctor that saw him a year ago.

His optic nerve hypoplasia in both eyes and the Duane's syndrome in his left eye? Vanished.

They aren't supposed to do that, by the way. A misdiagnosis is of course possible, but it was pretty clear last time we went that he had both of those things-- you could see the retraction of Connor's eyes into the sockets when he tried to look to the left or right-- something that is a huge hallmark of Duane's syndrome and distinguishes it from similar issues that are due to muscular weakness of the eyes instead of a nerve issue. We have pictures of him taken of him with his right eye turned in and his left eye straight. The doc was a little more unsure of the optic nerve hypoplasia at the time, but said that though it was mild, it was there. Now Connor's vision has improved to the point that the ONLY thing wrong with his eyes is that his right eye has Duane's syndrome and he is a little far-sided. Suddenly he has peripheral vision, too--something he's never had. The doc said he can probably see just as well, if not better, than typical kids his age. So I can take optic nerve hypoplasia completely off his list of disorders, and we can stop making special accommodations for his vision at therapy and play group, as he doesn't need most of them any more. Amazing.

The funny thing is that Connor does this sort of thing all the time. His soft spots closed at birth (for the back one) and six weeks (for the front one) and we were supposed to have to do this major surgery to reopen the sutures in his skull, but then his head mysteriously kept growing despite the completely closed sutures, and is now rounded out and completely proportionate to the rest of his body. He had severely high levels of calcium in his blood, levels of the type that cause people to go into comas, that not only had no effect on him but suddenly righted themselves when he was six months old. And you can't forget the whole "brain-stem response only" prognosis. Knowing who we are? Standing? Learning sign language? Impossible. Yet here he is, doing all of those anyway.

In the end Connor leaves me both baffled and overjoyed. To the doctors he is a mystery, but to me he continues to be, and always will be, a miracle.

~Jess