28 February.

Well, where do I start for today. We arrived in the morning, hoping to hear that his bowel was working, only to bump into the ophthalmologist in the corridor. Max (as all the babies do) has eye tests – Max has had three prior to today - on a fortnightly basis. The first two were OK “but he’s really too small to see properly”, and the third was a good ‘all clear’. They are particularly looking for a condition called ROP (retinopathy of prematurity), which is a condition of the retina involving the small blood vessels becoming malformed due to some retina cells also malfunctioning. The cause of this is extreme prematurity and the prolonged use of oxygen – both of which are Max. Without laser surgery to destroy the malformed cells, the blood vessels can continue to grow malformed, which can cause the retina to become detached, which can cause blindness.
So, when I got around to Max’s bed, I assumed he’d had an eye check, which he had, but I wasn’t expecting the announcement that “He has ROP”. My heart sank – not because the condition is life-threatening, but it is (can be) sight-threatening. Scott (our paediatrician) sat us both down and described what ROP is, and what developments can occur should it not be treated (etc, etc, etc). Basically, more surgery.

So, the ophthalmologist (John) returned, with Stewart (eye surgeon) to re-check Max’s eyes. Stewart agreed with John‘s diagnosis, and decided that if he could get an anaesthetist, he’d do the surgery this afternoon. Within an hour Lynne (anaesthetist) arrived (who had done Max’s first bowel surgery), and about an hour or so after that he was in surgery.

So, again he was under a general anaesthetic, again he was wrapped up like Frosty the snowman in wool wraps to keep him warm on the way to theatre, and again we wait for him to come out.
And, again, Max did very well. There were no problems during surgery, either from the doctor or anaesthetic point of view. His eyelids look a bit red and puffy, but that is to be expected after a bit of a ‘Clockwork Orange’ experience.

Apparently this should not impact at all on the other areas of his body – our particular concerns of course are his lungs, his bowel and his liver – and it actually was a good time to have it diagnosed and treated as he is currently already ventilated. If they’d discovered it next week when he (hopefully) is off the ventilator again, he would have had to have been reintubated – a big drama. The fact that the previous test showed no ROP or even signs of it, and then two weeks later it was at Stage 3, shows that if we’d put it off, it may have progressed quite quickly. So, all up, it’s good to have had it caught and treated so quickly. He may still need glasses, but possibly not. He’ll probably need no more treatment, but there will be weekly tests anyway, just to check progress.

In the meantime, we wait for him to again come out of the anaesthetic (which he was starting to do when I left), and for that bowel to start moving!