In order to distract myself from the surgery these past couple of nights after Zoe went to bed, I did a bit of clean up on the blog as well as around my house (nervous energy anyone?). A couple of changes then:
- Books for kids – I’ve linked to worldcat.org, it’s kind of a meta-library catalog that should let you look up any book and see what the nearest library is that carries it. It works in the U.S. for sure, I don’t know how well it works for other countries, it depends on whether your libraries participate. The link will also show you a cover image, give you a few more details on the book and link to its page on Amazon.
- Resources for Parents / Communities, Listservs & Forums – I’ve added a new section for listservs, communities and forums about kids and vision problems and glasses. The first one listed is Little Four Eyes on facebook. Because I’m trendy like that. If you’re on facebook, please join the group, we can share pictures and stories and all a bit more informally. I know there are a lot of other communities and groups out there. Send me a note or comment and let me know what to add. I haven’t had a chance to research this as much as I’m like.
- Resources for Parents / Blogs – I’ve added a couple of blogs that are specifically focused or write often about children’s vision. Again, let me know what others I should add. I’m also considering adding a section with blogs of parents who have kids with glasses, even though the blogs don’t specifically focus on kids with glasses. I know that quite a few of the authors and commenters have their own blogs. Would anyone be interested in a list like that? If so, let me know if you have a blog you want added, I don’t want to add people’s personal blogs unless I’m given an ok.
- Call for posts & post topics (pleas?) I am working on a post-surgery post that just gives a run-through of what the whole experience was for us (basically, what I would have wanted to read before going in to this), but I don’t want this to turn into the Zoe has eye surgery blog, but on the other hand, I’m currently having trouble coming focusing on much else right now. So, please if you have any stories to share or ideas for post topics or anything else, let me know, leave a comment, you know what to do!
(Things looked good at Zoe’s post-surgery follow-up today, our next appointment is in a couple of weeks. She still hates the ointment, but it’s a little better.).
For Little Eyes 
I’m really glad that your daughter’s surgery went well; her eyes look great.
I wanted to suggest the PGCFA (Pediatric Glaucoma & Cataract Family Association) forum. This site has a lot of information about glaucoma and cataracts; they post different articles and information that I have found extremely helpful. There is also the PGCFA support group.
Post surgery –my daughter is only 3 months old so the biggest dilemma we ran into prior to both of her surgeries was not being able to feed her 6 hours before surgery. I think best part for her was waking up in my arms and guzzling down sugar water (yummy). She is most likely going to need surgery in 3 weeks due to the increased pressure in her eye, the glaucoma drops aren’t working. I will let you know if there are any suggestions I can give other parents. I do have advice for the ointment; try to place the ointment in her eyes when she is eating. I have had to place 4 different drops in ointments in my daughter’s eye, up to 8 times a day and I found this to be the best method. My 17 month old son recently had pink eye and I used his sippy cup, or I let him play with something I usually don’t let him touch (Mia’s glasses for example) and this distracted him enough to place his drops in.
Danielle
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Sorry, I also wanted to add EI (early intervention). I had no idea what this was until a parent from the APHAKIC support group gave me information about this service. Due to our daughters eyes problems she qualifies for services through the state for early intervention. This service is free; they come to your home and assess your child to ensure he/she is developing properly without any delays. This service is available until my daughter turns 3. They give you valuable information to help with development for a visually impaired child such as placing colorful stickers on door frames to help your child while patching. They also help with IEP’s and transition into preschool. I also contacted the state department for the blind and visually impaired and they gave me information about the different services the state offers. This might be helpful information to add to your blog.
Talk to you soon,
Danielle
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Thanks Danielle, those are great suggestions, I’ll get them on the resources page as soon as possible. The ointment has gotten much better since the ophthalmologist told us that we could just put a dollup on our finger and just put it in the corner of her eye, rather than trying to hold the eye open and squirt a 1/8 inch line of ointment directly on her eye. I wished they’d told us that to begin with. With the original method, there was no distracting to be done at all, but now, I think your suggestion of doing it while eating or playing with something else will work well.
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