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Big news today. Big, big, BIG news, in fact. The low vision specialist at the University of Iowa informed us this morning that Audrey's vision has improved. And we're not talking just a slight improvement. Her vision is now 3 times better than it was when we last saw Dr. Wilkinson a year ago. 3 TIMES! We went from 20/200 to 20/120. That's insane! Will and I knew she was doing well, but to know it's now that good...is... well, words just don't even come close to describing how awesome that is!
So to help you understand the answer to "what does Audrey see?", here's a visual. At 20/200 (where Audrey was a year ago), she would only be able to 'read' the very top line of the eye chart with the largest letters. Anything below that line would be blurry and illegible. Today, she would be able to 'read' the first three lines. So really, Audrey sees everything we do, it's just that some things are less detailed than what a person with normal vision would see. Another way to describe it--the distance at which a person with 20/20 would see detail, Audrey would have to hold 6 times closer to see the same level of detail.
The specialist even made the comment that he's had patients at her current vision level that were able to drive--something I'd been worried about since we discovered her vision problems (although really I shouldn't worry too much with the driverless car technology just around the corner).
Our meeting with Dr. Drack also went well. She was very happy with Audrey's improvement but still wants us to schedule an appointment under anesthesia to have the retina specialist get a better look at the stalks in her left eye. The potential for eye surgery is still there, but it can be risky in terms of retinal detachment so we'll have to wait to hear if the benefit will outweigh the risk. In the meantime we've been instructed to increase our amount of eye patching from 2 hours to 3 hours each day.
It's always fun to watch Audrey exceed expectations and to hear doctors make the comment "when we first saw her we never expected she would improve this much." I'm so excited to watch her continue to improve and see where she ends up on the spectrum. Keep defying the odds, big girl :) Mommy & daddy are proud of you! And to those who have sent positive vibes/prayers--thank you! Clearly the love is working.
