The Home Stretch

At our last ophthalmologist visit, the doctor told Dan and me that Calvin's visual life will be normal. 13 months ago, I was crying thinking of how Calvin would never get to ride a bike, drive a car, see the beautiful trees and flowers, or appreciate how much his appearance resembles his handsome daddy. On the brink of Cal's eye muscle surgery (and hopefully final surgery) tomorrow, I can't help remembering God's goodness and provision.

At about three months old, we knew that something was not right. We noticed that Calvin loved being around bright lights and always focused his gaze upon windows and bulbs. We also realized that he never really looked at us. He touched our faces while "looking" in another direction, and though he would smile in response to our voices, he would not look us in the eye. Upon a first visit to the ophthalmologist, our fears were confirmed. Calvin could not see. Thankfully, this was only the beginning of the journey.

Calvin at 3 months

This picture was taken shortly after we realized he couldn't see.

We went to a more specialized pediatric ophthalmologist, Dr. Archer, a few days later who gave us the words we were longing to hear. He said that Calvin could not see, but that his vision would start to develop in the next month or two. He had a condition called delayed visual maturation where his vision just hadn't fully developed by the time he was born. A few weeks later, we noticed Calvin looking at us and smiling. We were so thankful and bought a crib mobile for Calvin in celebration. What a gift!

In addition and completely separate from Cal's delayed visual maturation, Calvin had something called persistent fetal vasculature in his left eye. This condition damaged the structure of the lens and retina in Cal's left eye. Surgery was needed to repair the retina to make it as functional as possible.

As a five month old, Calvin had this retina surgery with Dr. Capone, one of the best retina surgeons in the world, practicing just minutes away from us Michigan. God has put us in exactly the right places for Cal's eye needs since the beginning. What a blessing to not have to drive all over the country for these appointments and surgeries.

Calvin at 5 months

After retina surgery in his left eye.

Dr. Capone predicted that he was able to repair the retina enough that we could hope for as good as 20/200 vision (not correctable with glasses) in Calvin's left eye. We were just rejoicing that our little guy had vision at all, and we were so glad to hear that he may have limited vision in his left eye, too.

That was still not the end of the road! After moving down to Durham, Calvin met his ophthalmologist at Duke, Dr. Wallace. Upon his observation, he decided that Calvin's retina was in such good shape after the surgery that it was no longer the limiting factor for the vision in his left eye. It was now the lens that was cloudy from the original condition. Dr. Wallace took out this cloudy lens and gave Cal a contact that he has had for the last year.

Calvin at 6 months

After surgery to remove his left lens.

Since then, we have been patching Calvin's right eye (good eye) to help his brain use his left eye that is now structurally functional. The gains have been incredible! From not seeing at all out of his left eye a year ago, his vision is considered on the low end of the normal range. Wow, vision out of 2 eyes!

Now that Calvin has made significant gains in his left eye vision, Dr. Wallace is going to straighten the left eye in order to give his eyes a chance to work together. This surgery is tomorrow, and if all goes well, it should be Calvin's last eye surgery!

After this, we will continue to patch to maintain the strength of Calvin's left eye, but much less than the 5 hours a day we have been doing. Calvin will need to wear sports googles while playing "dangerous" sports to make sure his right eye is not damaged because it is the stronger eye.

We believe that in every way, God has perfectly knit Calvin together exactly as he is. God has a purpose for his life that is better than anything we could ask or imagine. This did not change based on Calvin having "normal" vision or not, but we are thankful that he gets to experience life with sight. God has proven again to us that in all things, He is able. We pray that just as God has developed Cal's physical vision, He would open Calvin's spiritual eyes to see, that Calvin would know this God who knit him together and loves him so immensely.

Please pray that tomorrow God would guide the hands of Dr. and Wallace, and that before the surgery, Calvin's hunger would be taken away since he is not able to eat after midnight tonight.