Life's Little Miracles

I am overwhelmed with gratitude today. My morning started at 5:13am. I was up numerous times before then, but I actually crawled out of bed at 5:13.

At 5:40am Ryan came upstairs. I finished getting ready for the day and we knelt down as a family to pray.  Ryan and I left the house at 5:50. We were supposed to be in Riverton at the Primary Children's Outpatient clinic at 6:50, registered and prepped for surgery.

Wrapped in a heated blanket playing video games

When Ryan was very little, I don't remember his age, maybe 4 years old, I noticed that his eye crossed. After numerous doctor visits, and to make a long story short, Ryan spent 6 years in glasses to correct his crossed eye.

Last September, Ryan's doctor felt that ti was time to remove him from his glasses -- that his eyes had corrected themselves.  He was thrilled. By Christmas, I noticed that his eyes were crossing again and I made an appointment with our eye Dr. By this time, we had received word that the Dr that we had seen for the past 6 years would be leaving UT and that a new Dr had taken his place.  She saw the crossing, and actually measured that it was actually crossing more than our previous Dr had seen. Ryan was put back in glasses and we made an appointment to be seen in 2 months.

At our two month appointment, we realized that the glasses were no longer correcting Ryan's crossed eye and we would need surgery to correct it.

Over the course of a few weeks, we have learned a lot about Ryan's eyes. I actually feel terrible about pieces of the story. For the sake of recording his life, I will list all of the details here.

- Ryan only uses one of his eyes to see. We are blessed that he still has 20/20 vision in his eyes. We have been told by the Dr that we are very lucky that Ryan still sees out of both of his eyes after all of these years. Most people who only use one eye to see, lose their sight at least somewhat in the eye that they do not use

Ryan has also struggled over the years being able to catch a ball. As I have learned what he actually sees - using only one eye - I have realized that this is likely part of his problem. Imagine having a ball come at you and only being able to see with one eye. No wonder he struggles...

- Ryan cannot see 3D images. A few years ago we took Ryan to see "G Force" at the theater. We viewed it in 3D and he complained about how he thought everything was blurry. I always thought that maybe it was because he wasn't wearing his glasses at the time. Now I know.

Immediately after surgery

Immediately after surgery - different angle

Ryan's surgery was uneventful. He kept me laughing when he finally came to, and I love him even more for his bravery. The first words out of Ryan's mouth when he realized that I was in the room were "Mom, I just want to see you, but my eyes hurt." I told him it was ok, that I would be right there and he said "I just want to see your face."

Ryan is one of Life's Little Miracles.