Orion and I have had quite a few visits to the Opthomologist recently because of a horizontal twitching in his eyes. That horizontal twitching was to me a sign that he was just curious and active, but to the doctors it was something else. Today Orion and I went to Kirkland to see "the best pediatric opthomologist around" and that was true to form - he was wonderful.
Diagnosis: My baby boy has Congenital Nystigmus.Congenital Nystigmus is: "Slow and fast movements from side to side that have been present since birth". What does that mean for our sweet boy? It means that he will likely need to wear glasses as he gets older because his vision won't be as strong as other peoples. He does have the ability to stop his eyes from twitching when he looks to the right (that is called his null point). Other than that he will live a healthy and very normal life. But now for the more interesting question: Why does he have nystigmus?
Nystigmus can happen for all sorts of reasons but for Orion he has Nystigmus because he has albinism. In other terms - my son is Albino. Wow! Never expected that did you? Yup, baby O has blonde hair because he has albinism - an inherited and recessive gene that both the mother and father need to have in order to have a child with albinism. 1 in 17,000 people have albinism. Now, what does that mean for my baby boy? Well again, he will live a perfectly healthy life and that is great news to this momma. He will have to wear glasses eventually (their are holes in the pigmentation of his eyes), and he will need to keep his skin protected (no tans for my boy), and he will have beautiful, wonderful (and explainable) blonde hair.
Will and I are handling everything well (they kind of gave us some warnings as to what it could be last week). If you'd like to read more about Albinism you can go to http://www.albinism.org/ and they have some great info on the site. Please keep us in your prayers as we discover more about our baby O.
Diagnosis: My baby boy has Congenital Nystigmus.Congenital Nystigmus is: "Slow and fast movements from side to side that have been present since birth". What does that mean for our sweet boy? It means that he will likely need to wear glasses as he gets older because his vision won't be as strong as other peoples. He does have the ability to stop his eyes from twitching when he looks to the right (that is called his null point). Other than that he will live a healthy and very normal life. But now for the more interesting question: Why does he have nystigmus?
Nystigmus can happen for all sorts of reasons but for Orion he has Nystigmus because he has albinism. In other terms - my son is Albino. Wow! Never expected that did you? Yup, baby O has blonde hair because he has albinism - an inherited and recessive gene that both the mother and father need to have in order to have a child with albinism. 1 in 17,000 people have albinism. Now, what does that mean for my baby boy? Well again, he will live a perfectly healthy life and that is great news to this momma. He will have to wear glasses eventually (their are holes in the pigmentation of his eyes), and he will need to keep his skin protected (no tans for my boy), and he will have beautiful, wonderful (and explainable) blonde hair.
Will and I are handling everything well (they kind of gave us some warnings as to what it could be last week). If you'd like to read more about Albinism you can go to http://www.albinism.org/ and they have some great info on the site. Please keep us in your prayers as we discover more about our baby O.
I’m a follower! Follow me! :)
ReplyDeleteHe’ll get all the ladies with his amazing blonde hair. :)
I love knowing that God blessed you with baby O and that he has the perfect plan for his life. I love you guys and am excited to see how He draws you closer to Jesus!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a beautiful post.
ReplyDelete