today we had yet another follow-up exam to see how little odin is recoving from the effects of his and the retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and his eye surgery to address the condition.

as always, the first step involves putting drops in his eyes to dilate his pupils. everyone always comments on how little he fusses when they put the drops in, since they sting and make everything uncomfortably bright.

next, the eye doctor puts a lens over odin’s eye that focuses a light emanating from his headgear onto odin’s retina.

he comments that there appears to be very little scarring from the ROP and that he remains quite confident that odin will escape any permanent damage. although he remained quite optimistic that things were caught and corrected quickly, he cautioned that we could still see manifestations of the effects of the disease process reveal themselves slowly over the next three years or so.

specifically, he mentioned that the scarring could “pull” his retina slightly “off center” which would have the effect of making it appear as if he were not looking directly at something, even though he is, in fact, looking right at it.

of course, as hypervigilent parents, i’m sure we’ll probably unecessarily focus ( ahem ) on whether or not he’s looking squarely at us.

we waited in the doctor’s office for over an hour and – just in case you thought that odin was always content and serene – after the drops and the bright lights and the exam, he lets everyone know that he’s had just about enough of whole experience.