today, we had our first post-rop surgery exam. unfortunately we had to wait for awhile to see the doctor, but luckily kris had the foresight to pack a bottle because bad, bad things would have happened if we had found ourselves stuck in the office without little odin’s afternoon feeding.

i’m still getting used to the logistics involved in feeding every three hours and didn’t really think to bring a bottle . “good thing i have kris around”, i thought as i heard my own stomach rumble.

eventually, dr. droste, the same doctor who did his initial assessments and rop surgery arrived and performed a thorough exam. he found that eric is farsighted, which is normal and doesn’t mean that he’s going to be farsighted forever; as a baby’s eyeballs grow, the farsightedness should slowly diminish. he also discovered that the conditions that prompted the intial surgery ( stage III ROP with plus disease in all “twelve hours” of both eyes ) are getting much better, despite the burn “take rate” being slightly slower than he normally likes to see. woohoo!

however, there has been some damage to little odin’s retina that dr. droste wants to have evaluated by a specialist all the way across the state to see if additional, more invasive, surgery might be required to prevent any more extensive damage. the proliferation of blood vessels that occured with the ROP has created a slight ridge in a portion of both eyes that is “slightly elevating” his retina. and while the elevation is minimal, it can still lead to retinal detachment, so dr. droste wants someone to take a second look and assess the situation.

so on october 18th, we get to take a field trip to detroit on the eve of his hernia surgery.

“be prepared to be in the waiting room for a long time,” he said.

“bring a lunch.”