The wonderful Dr. Dries

Esotropia is a neurological disorder that affects the eyes. They don't have the muscle control (among other things) that they should, so they go cross-eyed. It is also a genetic disorder. My brother Josh was in the 1st grade (I think) when he started having problems seeing. He was seeing double. He went to see Dr. David Dreis and we found out he had this problem. He wore glasses and eventually had surgery. Esotropia comes at three different times. You can be born with it, it can start at the age of 2 or it could start showing around 6 years of age. Obviously Josh was the 6 years. So, knowing that it was genetic we kept an eye (no pun intended) on our kids. One day right after the twins had turned 2 I walked in the room and Kearney freaked me out. Her right eye was nestled in the corner but her left eye was looking right at me! For those of you who have not seen it trust me, it can be very freaky! So, we made an appointment with the said Dr. Dries. He is one of the best opthamologists in the United States. She did indeed have esotropia. We started out her treatment with an eye patch. She wore it for 3 hours a day. It was to help develop her muscles to try and pull it back in to place. She also received glasses. This was one easy way to tell the twins apart! Her nursery leaders loved it! The glasses seemed to work for a little bit, but after a couple of months she would not wear them and she was going cross-eyed with them on. We took her back in to the Dr and he decided that she needed surgery. The weird thing is that because Josh was 6 when he the symptoms started showing he had seen long enough that his eyes would try to fix it, thus the double vision. Kearney had only been seeing for 2 years and that is not a long enough time for the eyes to have been working so they did not try to compensate. She just stopped seeing in her right eye. If she had not had the surgery she would have gone blind! So scary!!!!! The thing with the surgery was that it did not always work, in fact Josh is going to have to have surgery again and has gone back to wearing glasses as of right now. He said that more than 50% of kids had to have the surgery again right afterwards to have it be effective. So, in January of 2007 we went up to Primary Children's hospital for her surgery. She was excited to be able to spend time with just mm and dad. Once they gave her the medicine she became so lethargic. I had to hold her or she would fall down. They wheeled her in to the surgery in a wagon! It was so cute. She was in there for about 90 minutes. It was, without a doubt the longest 90 minutes of my life! Dr. Dries came out to meet with us and let us know that the surgery went well. I started to cry and told him how thankful we were for all of his work and expertise. He then informed us that it was not him that had done it but that God had given him the knowledge and talent to be able to help other people. Now, I don't know about you, but most surgeons tend to think that they are a god and all of their knowledge and works is so great because of them! It was so nice and refreshing to listen to him. It made me like and appreciate him more! So, Kearney had her check ups and she was doing really well. It came time for us to have to move to California and I asked him about a Dr. here for her. He said that he did not know of anyone in El Centro (big shock!) but one of the countries best opthamologists was in La Jolla and that if he had to take his son to someone it would be Dr. Granet (pronounced granite). So, 9 months ago we drove over to see him and he was very please with Kearney's eyes and could not stop talking about the great work that Dr. Dries had done. We went in again yesterday to visit with Dr. Granet. He examined Kearney again and then informed me that if he did not know for certain that she had had the surgery he would not believe me that it had been done. She has absolutely no scaring (not normal) and had perfect eyes. He then talked about how this is what every surgeon wanted for their patients. He informed me that if his daughter ever need surgery he would be taking her to Dr. Dries. I always knew that Dr. Dries was wonderful, but it just reminded me of the blessing he has been in our families lives. First Josh and now Kearney. I am truly grateful to the Lord for helping to give Dr. Dries his knowledge and talents. I am grateful that we went to him and that he did such an excellent job on Kearney. She loves him (talks about him and Dr. Granet frequently) and he has given her a great gift. Thank you so much Dr. Dries!!!!!

This is the wonderful Dr. David C. Dries from the John Moran Eye Center!

Isn't that a freaky look? Even with the glasses on!

Can you guess who is who?

Every time I gave her a bath it would freak me out!

My sweet baby!

Having her blood pressure taken before surgery.

Open up and say 'ahhhhh'

Playing before surgery

In the wagon on the way to surgery!

In the recovery room after her surgery. They wanted us to bring something with her for comfort. She stole her sister's kitty and then Kylee ended up just giving it to her.

Not quite awake yet. The medicines that she took made her skin pink.

She hurt so bad and they had to put her arms in splints so that she couldn't rub her eyes. Poor thing!

We had to put creme in to her eyes. She is laying her patiently waiting.

She didn't want to open her eyes at all (it hurt) so if she knew there was food coming (in this case a fruit snack from dad) she would just open her mouth and root around....kind of like a baby bird!After a while she would feed herself, but notice her eyes are still closed!

After being in the bath for a while the warm water would wash away all of the gunk and she would eventually open them.