snowdeal.org > ex machina: the eric update - day 1812: not a tall tale about odin's eyesight.

ex machina

the eric update - day 1812: not a tall tale about odin's eyesight.

during The Nightly BedTime Ritual we often like to tell each other Tall Tales, improvising and evolving them with grander and grander plot twists.

if you're relatively new to odin's adventures, the following may seem to be just such a tall tale, but it's as True as True could be.

a few days ago i took odin to his umpty billionth eye exam and we were all quite pleased to hear that his sight has continued its gradual improvement over the past year! his eyesight is 20/30 which is almost normal for a 5 year old ( typically 20/25 ). there's even a chance that he might not need glasses, which i find hard to believe since both of his parents are nearsighted. but even more importantly, his retinas look astonishingly healthy as his eyes continue to grow, which is remarkable given all the scar tissue on his retinas from the surgery that prevented him from going blind.

and so, perhaps, five years later we can think a little less about retinopathy of prematurity. it proved the curse of the nicu to be true and caused an emergency transport to a new, scary nicu and an emergency laser surgery with 1,500 burns in each eye and innummerable eye exams with dilated pupils and bright lights shone in odin's eyes. its effects brought news of possible legal blindness and the day we thought he had really gone blind only to discover he had a late vitreous hemmorhage ( eye filled with blood ) that somehow, improbably, had no associated retinal damage.

perhaps.

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6/19/2009 05:28:00 PM 3 comments

3 Comments:

I have been following Odin's journey since I discovered your site during my initial frantic research after I gave birth to 24-week twins in May of 2005. My son's experience has mirrored Odin's in many ways, including his incredibly improving eyesight. At four years of age, my son has recently had his classification as "visually impaired" reversed by his opthamologist. Hooray for the Very Small Animals!

By Anonymous, at 9:57 PM

Delighted to read such marvelous news! That's an advanced birthday present.

By esta1923, at 11:24 PM

Oh, what fantastic news!

By Anonymous, at 11:09 AM

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[ rhetoric ]

“"it is hard to be brave," said piglet, sniffing slightly, "when you're only a Very Small Animal." rabbit, who had begun to write very busily, looked up and said: "it is because you are a very small animal that you will be Useful in the adventure before us."”

the complete tales & poems of winnie the pooh

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this site chronicles the continuing adventures of my son, odin, who was unexpectedly born on the fourth of july at 25 weeks gestation, weighing 1 pound 7 ounces.

he's quite a fighter and you can always send him a postcard to the most current address listed here if you're inspired by his adventures. see the postcard project/google maps mashup to see a map of the postcards.

if you're new, you can browse the archives to catch up. and don't forget to watch a few movies that i made while we were in the neonatal intensive care unit. or if you want the abridged version and you can find a copy, you can read about his adventures in the november 2005 issue of parents magazine.

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