This story was sent in by Dawn.  – Ann Z

Jillian at 15 months

My Jillian had surgery recently at 20 months.  We didn’t discover her eye problems until she was about 13 months old or so.  I saw her eyes turn in when drinking but they always corrected.  I think I got used to them being off center.  My dad pointed them out to me saying they were just like mine had been.  I also had surgery as a small child, and while my eyes were made straight, my left eye would be considered blind.  It disturbs me first of all to think my daughter was blind all that time and I didn’t know it, and that though she had surgery she may not see better.  She does have glasses, and since surgery she throws them off.  We do have a follow up appointment today, so I have questions to ask.

I think it’s interesting that there can be ways a child gives signals to problems, but of course we parents cannot possibly know.  I think back, Jillian didn’t use her hands for a long time like other babies.  She learned to sit up crawl and walk on time, but that first several months I thought it was strange she didn’t reach out for toys.  She would reach with her feet.  Then, when she did crawl, it was on hands and feet not knees.  She didn’t look forward, she looked at the floor.  She also often shook her head, I thought it meant she was happy.  She did this VERY early on within weeks, I recall wondering if something was wrong with her but she seemed healthy and all her doctor’s visits were normal.  Now I think she was just trying to see.  Because she is my 6^th child, these things she did were different than the others…but I chalked it up to the unique qualities of each one.  She had things she did differently, but it was just her.  Now I know more…