Still healing

A week and  half ago when we were in to see the ophthalmologist, he asked if we thought Anya's right eye, or lid, was getting better.   Both Will and I stated that we thought it was not.  There was a period of time when we saw the eyelid flutter a bit, then more and more every day, but it seemed to stagnate.  Now, though, I am reconsidering what I told the doctor.  I think that her eye may be continuing to improve, it just moves at such a slow rate that, at times, it seems it isn't improving anymore.  There have been a few times that I have seen her open her eye without using her hands, just using the muscles in the eye.  It does not open very much, so I can only see it when I am lower than her, and that does not happen all that often with me being the height I am and Anya being the height she is.

There was a brief period of time while we were at the ocularist that Anya had her prothesis in.  She was also able to open her eye a bit then.  The prosthesis has a larger slope than the conformer, which helps her eye open because it gives the muscle in the upper eyelid something to push against.  She was quite happy looking in the mirror and opening her eye.  I asked her what it looked like and she said, "A fake eye."  After many hours of frustration, that got a chuckle out of the ocularist.  I think he is used to hearing how real the eyes he makes are, it might have been a bit of an insult from a five-year-old to hear it looked like a fake eye.  Fake or not, she was pleased with it, and greatly displeased that it was not actually finished and she had to take it out again.

Anya will see the surgeon again on Monday for a check-up.  I don't have any expectations that he will have answers as to what is going on and why she still cannot open her eye.  We will continue to wait.   Additional surgery may be the final solution, but we won't be talking about that for many months yet.  On the twenty-second is when we head back to the ocularist to get the complete prosthetic eye.  I hope that Anya will remember how happy she was to see an eye in her socket, and be more agreeable.  She has said that she really wants her new eye before Christmas.  What a thing for a kid to wish for.  Her letter to Santa did not mention that, though.  Instead she asked him for "a youth small purple star fleece sweatshirt."  How is that for precision?  If you happen to see one of those during your holiday shopping, please let me know, because I am not quite sure how Santa is going to be able to deliver this year.