Houston, Duane, and Rice

...our trip to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. The cows above greeted us at the Clinic Care Center, and they were so unexpected that I had to take a picture. They were 10 feet tall, glass, covered in crystals, and wore fish net stockings.

Anyway...Kate's ophthalmology (that took me 10 tries with spell check to finally get right) appointment went as well as we could have hoped. She was officially diagnosed with Duane's Syndrome type 1, which is what we assumed it was. I hate that she has a syndrome named after a boy. Duane's Syndrome type 1 is a congenital eye syndrome that has a 6th nerve palsy. Her left eye will never move outward past the mid-point, it can't be corrected. What makes Duane's unique is that when Kate looks to the right it causes her left eyelid (palsy eye) to close halfway. The good thing is that hers is type 1. Type 2 has a lot of developmental problems associated with it such as Autism. Type 1 simply means that it is congenital and it probably won't affect her development negatively. If she's right handed though she probably won't be able to ever hit a baseball/softball because she won't be able to see it. On the plus side the doctor said that if she's right handed it will probably cause her to keep her head down better when she plays golf, so that could be good. In all seriousness the doctors here were great and very knowledgeable. There is nothing corrective at this time that we can do, and the only cause for surgery would be later in life if the syndrome causes her to develop a severe head tilt.



People have commented that her eyes are looking better, which I have to say her right one is becoming more controlled when looking straight ahead, but we typically don't post pictures that show her eye looking badly. Below is a picture of her palsy eye that shows how inward it can turn when trying to use it. But as you can see in the next picture it's not slowing her down any!




After her appointment we drove across the street and spent some time walking around Rice University. It was a pretty campus and I guess Kate can go there one day if she wants to. Although, I don't know if I necessarily want her living in Houston--too much traffic. We also got to take one of my former Honors students and former dog sitter out to dinner. Nikki is a first year medical student now at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and it was great to get to spend some time with her again. We require a high level of education and personal and professional ambition in order to dog sit for us. Tomorrow we are off to spend some time in Austin and will spend the night at Amanda's Uncle Mike and Aunt Nancy's place in Wimberley (hill country).

Thank you all for the well-wishes and prayers for Kate! We covet them all and it makes our lives easier knowing so many wonderful people out there care about our family.