Thursday, January 28, 2010

Update from the Eye Doctor

Jack had his 6 month check up with Dr. Cogen. The good news is that his optic nerves appear unchanged. His prescription for his glasses have also not changed. Dr. Cogen told us again that he is mostly prescribing the glasses to protect Jack's eyes to preserve the vision he does have.

Dr. Cogen told us that Jack's optic nerve atrophy is "grade 4" and at this stage of atrophy his optic nerves will not swell. He said that there would have to be dramatic changes to the optic nerves for him to be able to see a difference with the naked eye. This kind of takes out one avenue of assessing intracranial pressure (pressure in Jack's head) between MRIs.

Our biggest indicator for pressure changes now will be neurologic signs and symptoms that Jack may exhibit. Fortunately, Jack is more active than ever and he communicates more everyday. This will make it easier to notice neurologic changes.


We'll continue regular follow ups with Dr. Cogen so that he can monitor the optic nerves for any major changes and also to regularly assess for problems that are emergent but may not be readily obvious since the usual symptom would be loss of vision--something that would be hard to assess in Jack.

Don't forget to check out this week's Life is Therapy.

10 comments:

mommytoalot said...

Glad there is some good news. Kind of scary, the neurological stuff.
xx

The Blonde Duck said...

Whew! Glad to hear it.

Claremont First Ward said...

Glad to hear the good news!

Rachel said...

Glad that everything is looking good!! We could have run into each other at the office, eh? :)

Sarah and the Gentlemen said...

How does Jack do at his visits?

sheila said...

Great news! Congrats! That and big boy pants in one week....geez! :)

Momisodes said...

I am glad to hear it's unchanged. It is definitely a good thing he's communicating more each day.

Keeping you all in my thoughts.

Melissa aka Equidae said...

what great news...hope you pass a good weekend

Mary said...

So glad to hear that the doctor's appointment was positive. At least it sounded positive amid the scary-sounding neurological stuff!

Marie said...

It was positive. A bit surprising though since I did not know until that visit that at this point his optic nerves will no longer swell if there is pressure.