Kender and Jarod went in for EUA (Exam Under Anesthesia) yesterday. The short story is both boys had angiograms and needed lasering, and Kender may need to go on an anti-VEGF drug.

We're getting ready to take a trip to Texas this month. This will be our first non-funeral trip in three years. Three years? Really? Yup, 'fraid so. We're all very excited. We'll be leaving on Tuesday, taking three nights on the road, one week in the resort, and three nights back, for a total of two weeks. Thanks to Facebook, we're hoping to meet up with some old friends and relatives on the way or while we are there.

I've just signed on as a co-blogger for a friend's blog (Life with Twins and Multiples). Having somebody else watching over my shoulder, along with all the other ladies consistently posting, ought to help keep me on my toes and posting, right? And if I can keep up with posting on that blog, surely I can keep up with posting on my own. So here's my biannual pledge: I promise to start posting regularly from now on. (Yeah, we've heard that one before.)

Kender had another EUA today, to check on the bleeding I saw in his eye about a week and a half ago. It was visible to me because he has white areas inside his pupil where light reflects off the front edges of his retinal folds, and I saw that area in his right eye turn reddish-brown one weekend. Dr. Trese says he saw lots of blood and exudates. Kender also has glaucoma in that eye, with a pressure of 38 (normal is ~17). The glaucoma is probably caused by the blood blocking the normal fluid flow out of the inner eye. Dr.

Took Liam in for a glasses check last week, and he jumped from -1.5 to -3.5 in both eyes in just six months! So he has new glasses, and we may be looking at RGP contacts for him if this high rate of change keeps up, since the hard lenses can help slow that down. I didn't think I'd be ready to put a child this young into RGPs, but I may be changing my mind.

So the final determination after September's vision loss was that she has dragging of the macula in her right eye. This can cause unpredictable loss of acuity, with some patients with severe dragging having perfect acuity, and some patients with mild dragging having severe loss of acuity. There's nothing to be done about this, new glasses won't fix it. She now has permanent uncorrectable vision loss in that eye.

Mabon is the time of Harvest Home, when the fruits of our labors are brought in from the fields and the land is left to rest and recover over the winter months. Therefore, it is also a time to reflect on ourselves, what we have accomplished through the year, what goals we have met.

Tamara reported seeing flashing lights yesterday morning during school. She also said she felt like she was cross-eyed when she tried to read, after the flashes. I checked her vision and discovered that she couldn't read a magazine at a normal distance with her right eye, although she could with her left. We called Dr. Trese's office and set up an emergency appointment for just 2 hours away, and left immediately.

Kender and Jarod are going in for their next EUA (exam under anesthesia) on Monday. Every single time any of the kids goes in, the hospital has to call three times, first to do admission (insurance type info), second to do intake (medical history), and third to give us a time. You'd think at least the first (and maybe part of the second) could be skipped after the first one, but whatever.

So this lady today doing the intake on Jarod asks what his birth weight was. I said, "8-10."

"Wow, that's a big boy!"

"Not really," I said, "he wasn't my biggest."

"He wasn't?"

Yesterday, I took Liam for his second optometrist appointment. His first was last spring, and she said that while he was a little off, it was only about a quarter diopter, not enough to correct. Last week, during school, he told me he couldn't read the calendar on the fridge from his seat at the table. I checked, and he seemed to have a focal length of about 3-4 feet. So I scheduled him for a refraction. Sure enough, he is now at -1.5 diopters, and so we ordered his first pair of glasses yesterday. He will need to go back in 6 months, since he changed so much in the last year.