Persistent Hyperplastic Primary Vitreous

Trevor had eye surgery Tuesday to have his cataract removed. We had to be at the hospital at 6:15 in the morning, and it was 3 hours away. So, we drove there Monday evening and spent the night in a hotel. We arrived at the hospital by 6 A.M. Trevor was dressed in an oversized orange hospital outfit for babies, which made him look very cute. Several doctors, nurses, and anestisologists came in to talk to us before surgery to explain everything to us.

At 7:45 A.M. they finally took him back for surgery. The surgery was supposed to take about 2 hours. First he was given anestisia so he would be asleep during the surgery. Then the doctor did a thorough eye exam and took pictures of his eye, brought it up on a computer, and took measurements. During the examination, the doctor found that Trevor had more than just a simple cataract. He had "persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous." This means that there were extra cells that formed a stalk or stem looking structure that extended from the cataract in the front of his eye all the way to the retina in the back of his eye. This occured before he was even born. The doctor said it is not a genetic condition, and there is really nothing that causes it. He said, "It is just bad luck." This condition is worse than a basic cataract, and it lessens his visual potential for that eye.

That news was disappointing. However, he has recovered very quickly from surgery. When the nurse brought him back to us after surgery, he had a huge bandage and metal shield over his eye and arm restraints on his arms. They had to put arm restraints on him so that he could not bend his arms and touch his face because he kept trying to yank his bandages off. His bandage had to be kept on over night. So, we spent that whole night trying to keep him happy and keep his hands off of his face.

The next morning (Wednesday), we went back to the hospital for his bandages to be removed and for the doctor to exam his eye. The doctor was checking for bleeding, and found none. That was good news. His eye is a little red, but that is normal.

The hardest part now is that we have to give him three different types of eye drops throughout the day. In all, he gets eye drops 7 times each day for the next month. Of course, he HATES this process!!! We have to literally wrestle him down on the floor and sit on him (without putting weight on him). We put his little head between our knees. Then I have to pry his eye open as he is screaming frantically and clutching his eye shut as tight as he possibly can. I think he thinks we are attacking him. I've never seen him get this mad before, but it must be done for his eye to heal properly and to prevent infection.

He will receive glasses in a week or two, and we will start patching his good eye for 5-6 hours daily to help strengthen his weaker eye. That will be a challenge also, because he hates having an eye patch on his eye and he rips it off rather quickly. He will also return to the opthamologist quite often (in 1 week, 2 weeks after that, 1 month later, then every 3-4 months for a while). The doctor will be checking to make sure scar tissue has not formed on the back of the artifical lens they inserted during the surgery. He will also check for glucoma, which is fairly common after this type of surgery. If either of these conditions occur, then he will need another surgery. We are praying that we can be lucky enough to avoid those problems.