Colby is doing well after the surgery. I only talked with Dr. Parma briefly after the surgery and got a quick explanation of the surgery and what will take place in the next few weeks.
To give a little background, all premature babies are at risk for ROP (Retinopathy of Prematurity). ROP is the abnormal blood vessel development in the retina of the eye in a premature infant. There are several stages of ROP ranging from mild abnormal growth to total retinal detachment. There are many other terms like "Plus Disease" and "Threshold Disease" which are factors in the severity of the ROP. When ROP is considered the eye is broken into three zones and depending on which zone the blood vessels get to before they begin to grow abnormally will help determine the severity of the vision loss.
In Colby's case his blood vessels got in to zone two of the eye and stalled. The stalling of growth is generally a good indicator that ROP is present and that some treatment will have to be done. That is when Dr. Parma started looking at Colby's eyes more regularly. This week Colby's eye rapidly moved into stage three ROP, which concerned Dr. Parma, and ultimately caused him to come to the conclusion that laser surgery was necessary. The laser surgery is used to stop the overgrowth of unhealthy vessels on the retina by making small burns on the parts of the retina that are affected by ROP. In order to preserve central vision, some periferal vision may be lost as a result of the laser surgery.
Colby went in to surgery today at 4:30 and it took more than an hour per eye to get the laser treatment completed. The surgery is normally a 20 to 30 min process but along with all the other things working against him, he has what is called a blonde fundus which made the surgery that much more difficult. Blonde fundus means the retina has less pigment than others making it much harder for the doctor to see what he needs to burn with the laser. At close to 7:00 tonight Dr. Parma called to say that the surgery was complete and that he believes that he got everything that he needed. He believes that after looking at Colby this week that he did the surgery at the perfect time for the best end result. When I talked to Dr. Parma it was one of those moments where all your are waiting for is him to say everything is OK. He did a good bit of explaining that I didn't fully grasp because I was waiting for the results. We will be talking to him further in the next few days so I will get a better explanation of everything later.
While we were visiting tonight we had the task of trying to wake him up from his sedation. We got to play with his hands and feet trying to get him to wake up. They had to put him back on the ventilator for the surgery and they want to get him back off as soon as possible so he doesn't get attached to it.
We give all the praise to God that Colby has come through this surgery with success. I want to thank Dr. Parma for taking great care of Colby. He is truly a man of God who cares deeply for the babies that he treats. I want to thank all the Baptist South NICU nurses who helped with the surgery and who take care of him everyday. We are truly blessed to have you all in our lives. I also want to thank all of our family and friends. The support we receive from you all lifts us up every day and keeps us going.
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