Jobe’s Diagnosis

Whew….It has been a year of many different ideas and Dr. visits. The days after my sweet baby was born, the Dr.s in the hospital noticed that his skull plates were overlapping. We were all worried that his plates may already be fused but by the time we were heading home after our hospital stay, they were already spreading apart. Because of these issues, we decided to see a neurosurgeon here in Atlanta just to be on the safe side. So at 3 months, we met with a great Atlanta surgeon to rule out a cranial issue. While we met with him, he noticed that Jobe was tilting his neck and sent us to PT to get possible ‘torticollis’ taken care of.

A new chapter of PT began!! With amazing help from my sister, we were accepted into a Georgia program called ‘Babies can’t wait’ where we were able to have a therapist come TO OUR HOUSE to perform PT on my little man. For those of you that know me well, know how freaked out I am about germs. This was a HUGE blessing. If we weren’t able to use ‘Babies’, then we would have to travel down to Childrens Healthcare every other week where he would be chewing on other toys, playing with other toys, etc, etc, etc….This was a nightmare for me. He was so little, so fragile…..PT in our home was such an amazing blessing!!!

Things were going well with PT but as the weeks went on, we kept noticing that his left eye seemed smaller than his right and it didn’t want to move to the left. Therefore, we were sent to a pediatric ophthalmologist. After 2 visits with her, we were finally diagnosed with something called ‘Duane’s Syndrome’. This is where there is a palsy of the sixth cranial nerve, or the nerve is missing all together. The only way to get a definite diagnosis would be to do an MRI – but my little guy is so little. Therefore, we are going to wait a while to expose him to so much radiation since this condition (supposedly) cannot be fixed with surgery. But come to find out, Duane’s syndrome can cause a tilt in the neck because of eye strain and turning of the head to see, instead of turning of the eye. He probably never had torticollis in the first place!

In the meantime, we are visiting our beloved ophthalmologist every 4 months. We were also accepted into Vision Therapy through ‘Babies’ this week – so exciting!!!! The vision therapist will come to our house, too. We are soooo enjoying his cuteness and his little quirky eye. Below is a picture of him when he is sleepy and another of when he is well rested. See the huge difference in how lazy his left eye is?? His left eye is usually a tad bit crossed, but not really noticeable. Just enough to make him even cuter!

 

In the end, I believe that all of this is due to womb constriction. Contractions started for me when I was only 4 months pregnant and came pretty steadily until he was born at 39 weeks. He was head down for a long time – so head down, with a lot of strong contractions….who knows. His skull plates were over lapping at birth, etc, etc, etc. Only time will tell what we are dealing with. He is a super happy baby, and we are so blessed to have him in our lives!!!! I will keep family and friends updated as updates come…

On to another fun year with our little monkey!