Mr. Haddad- Oli's ocularist

We went last Tuesday to L.A. for Oli's first visit with the ocularist. It went very well. He got conformers in both her eyes. It was a little harder on the right side than the left but he was successful with both.

A conformer is an acrylic apparatus that will stretch the tissue of her eye and will hopefully allow her to wear prosthetic eyes. It is made out of the same material as a hard contact. It is clear and fits under her eyelid and over her eyeball. It is a little uncomfortable when Mr. Haddad is putting them in, but once in they don't cause her any discomfort. (Believe me, she would let us know if they hurt!!) It is suppose to stretch the tissue but there is no conclusive research studies suggesting that it promotes bone growth.

He said he is very happy with her first visit. Although her eyes will never look completely normal and will always be a little small he thinks we will be successful in getting prosthetics in. I told him that I don't have any expectations. I know she will be beautiful no matter how big her eyes are. He said that as she gets older we may need to see an ocular surgeon about putting a permanent implant into her eye socket. This is because eyes only grow to the age of 3 years. With micropthalmic kids their eyes either don't grow at all once born or only grow a small amount. So as the conformers stretch the area around her eye, her eye ball gets smaller and smaller in her socket and is farther and farther back in it. This results in the conformer or prosthetic eye getting thicker and thicker to fill the space. A permanent implant would allow the prosthetic to be thin and less uncomfortable. It would be a surgery and we will wait until she's a couple of years old to decide if this would be right for her. It will also depend on whether or not she has any light perception.

She doesn't seem to mind them at all even though now she can't close her eyes completely. There is a little stem sticking out so she can't close them. The stem is there so that Mr. Haddad can grab on to it to take them in and out. They are so small there would be no other way to do it. It looks a bit archaic though, to have something sticking out of her eye. At least they're clear. She won't have to wear stem conformers forever. Just till they get bigger. It's really neat to be able to see her eye lid and eye lashes on the left side. I can see the iris better now too because the clear magnifies it. She has a perfect little blue eye. We also get to pick the color of her eyes when she gets her first pair of prosthetics. How lucky am I? It isn't all mommies that get to pick their baby's eye color!!!!