ROP

Katie had her 2nd eye exam today, but the news wasn't great. She has stage 1 ROP (retinopathy of prematurity). What it means is the blood vessels in her eyes aren't developing the way they should. When I got to the hospital, the nurse told me I needed to talk to the doctor, but wouldn't really say anything else. I've learned that when there's good news, the doctor either sends messages through the computer system to the nurse to pass on to us. It's usually bad news when the doctor needs to talk to you. Usually, I have to request to talk to the doctor. He tried to explain what was going on, although I really didn't understand him. When I asked questions, he repeated the exact same words....not really a help to me. I've been sitting here reading my preemie books about ROP. I've found it's rated from Stage 1 to Stage 5, 1 minor, 5 serious. The doctor did say that she will have another exam in 2 weeks, and if she has progressed to Stage 2, they will do laser theraphy to kill some of the blood vessels. From what I can understand from these books, the blood vessels grow from the back of the eye to the front. In ROP babies, instead of the vessels stretching out to the front of the eye, the vessels branch and spread out, and never reach the front of the eye. These "extra" blood vessels block out light and can dagame the retina, which leads to loss of vision. Hopefully, the problem will correct itself. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I pray she won't have to have eye surgery. Eyeball stuff creeps me out. I can't even hardly put eye drops in my eyes, much less think about my baby having eye surgery. I know this is a long-winded technical babble entry, but it's all still fresh in my mind. I guess I mainly needed to lay it out for myself more than anything. I'll try to make the next entry a little more interesting :-)