Rita's version of 80s hair

Rita went to her pediatric opthamologist today for her three week check up.

Short story - The doctor will re-do the surgery and more, probably May 15th.

Long story - Although Rita's eye looks much better than before, it does not look as symmetrical as it should/could. If you look at the picture above, you will see that her right eye (left on the pic) isn't as open as her left eye. And it doesn't have the same contour as her left eye. The doctor would like to re-position the implant for a better lift, and make the eye more "oval" like her other eye. (We were pleased because she said this straight away without us saying anything.)

The other thing we noticed (and this is where I have been in relating to Rhonda's posts) is that her right eye *sometimes* moves differently than her left eye. When the doctor did a more thorough exam today (it's more noticeable now that her eye is open) she said that she does appear to have a weak muscle - and that's something that she could repair as well during the second surgery. I think we are going to give the OK for her to correct this as well.

And to help Rita strengthen her right eye (she's 20/30 now) , we also need to patch her left eye at least two hours per day (preferably more). We call it "pirate time".

So, it's a bummer that we have to repeat the surgery ... but to be honest we are happy that the doctor thinks she can do more to approve the balance and appearance of her eyes. (We haven't said anything because we didn't want others looking at her as critical as we do and see the difference. Especially if the first surgery was as good as it could be... that would have been fine with us. We think she's beautiful but only want the very best for her.)

*Rita's eyes will never be 100% normal functioning eyes ... the implant only helps her eye stay open. So if Rita has her left eye partially closed, or is looking down, her right eye stays open. It's sort of an "all or nothing" thing. In many pictures, her eyes are either open (wide-eyed grins) or her right eye is closed. Her eyes also look a little different because her right eye seems to be a little bit darker shade of blue, and has a section of it (about 20% at "4 o'clock") that is brown. (During one of our sessions with Z, Rita asked if she was going to have the "blood" removed rom her eye during the surgery.)