One of the risks to preemies is something called ROP or Retinopathy of Prematurity. For babies born as young as Isaac, they do routine eye exams to check for it. Basically, it is when the blood vessels that bring blood to the retina begin to develop abnormally. (If you are interested in more info about ROP go to http://www.charles-retina.com/rop-faq.htm)

Isaac had mild ROP which at his exam two weeks ago had become more moderate. The hope was that it wouldn't get any worse so that he would not need treatment (i.e. laser surgery). At his exam yesterday, his ROP had progressed to a stage 3 out of 5 and it was determined that he needs the laser surgery. Stage 3 is when it starts to get serious. It means the blood vessels grow toward the center of the eye instead of following their normal growth pattern along the surface of the retina.

The laser surgery basically causes scar tissue on the eyes that will prevent the abnormal vessels from spreading. Unfortunately it will also damage vision as well, but not very much if all goes well. Luckily, ROP usually starts at the peripheral of the eye which was the case with Isaac. If all goes well, he should recover just fine and have some mild to moderate damage to his peripheral vision only.

His surgery is scheduled for 9am tomorrow. There are risks involved--the whole taking a laser to a tiny baby's eye part being the most obvious risk. But the majority of babies do just fine and have no further complications beyond perhaps needing glasses. I can't help but be nervous though--I mean these are his eyes for goodness sakes! Plus, my stomach just wrenches at the thought of anyone doing anything even resembling surgery or a "procedure" to my little guy. I get agitated sometimes when they take his temperature!

On a slightly frustrated note, I gave Isaac a bottle for the first time on Sunday (just 15 mls with his meds in it). I'm going to have to give him bottles at home because he'll still need at least 4 bottles a day and Jaska obviously works. Plus, he needs his meds and putting them in his milk is really the only way to give them to him. Well--he totally freaked out and hasn't nursed well since. He's totally mad at me the little bugger. Before he started screaming his protest, he gave me this look that just screamed, "What in the world are you doing?" I'm really scared that this will be the end of nursing him. I'm working with the lactation consultants and dieticians though to see if we can make breastfeeding work regardless. Erghhh. On the bright side-he's eating well orally and that is huge. No feeding tube necessary which is normally a huge struggle for preemies.

On a more upbeat note, plans for sending Isaac home are in the works (Be still my soul, sweet hallelujiah :). He had a stress test from pulmonary today which he "failed" so they will in fact be sending him home on O2 (no surprise there). Now it's just a matter of going through the process of getting him home. Apparently, Isaac has to go across the street to the breathing center at the children's hospital for at least 5 days for monitoring. We have to be educated on how to use the O2 and equipment and they need to make sure he'll be fine on the home equipment before he can come home.

We've been asking everyone for a ballpark date, but they're squirmy about it. Best case scenario, the end of next week or next weekend. Even if it's longer, it shouldn't be much more than that.