Evaluation Under Anesthesia!

At home after 1st Glaucoma surgery

Today, Tom went to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh for another evaluation under anesthesia (EUA). If your child has visual problems then this word is probably VERY familiar to you. To get a really good examination of a child's eyes they put them under anesthesia. I imagine it's very hard to do a good exam on a wiggly, screaming child.

We used to do frequent eye exams that involved me and a technician holding Tom down while he screamed and the doctor tried to get a view of his eye. Also, it would be impossible to get a good eye pressure check that way because being upset would cause the pressure to rise.


The in-office exams were not easy for anyone and I sure don't miss doing that every week. Since Tom's eyes have been fairly stable since last spring, we began having EUA's every 3 months to monitor his retinas.



Thomas developed glaucoma last summer and treating it has become our focus. His eye pressure just keeps going up and can no longer be controlled with eye drops (Xalatan and Cosopt) and oral medications (Diamox). Today was the third EUA that turned into a surgery to try to bring his eye pressure down. I should have been ready for it but I wasn't. 

The first glaucoma surgery was to implant 2 small drainage tubes (Baerveldt and Ahmed) into the eye. This was intended as a proactive approach to his difficult to manage pressure. A month later one of the tubes was turned on, and today we went back under to see how the pressure had changed. Unfortunately, it was still really high so they decided to open the other drainage tube.

He springs right back! This is after glaucoma surgery #2

It was so disappointing to hear that news. I feel like Thomas is always recovering from something. An ear infection, eye surgeries... But hey, we are lucky that Thomas has treatment options and that we have excellent care available in our own city. It's all about perspective. We also learned that his optic nerve looks good and that is wonderful news.

We are very lucky that Thomas handles anesthesia very well. I think today was the 12th time he's been under. After a while you stop counting that stuff. We are at the hospital so much that the staff are beginning to recognize us!

We will go back next week for another EUA to see how the pressure has changed after today's surgery. Let's hope we got it right this time and the pressure is controlled!