Why is Stevie Wonder blind? He was a preemie too, though only by 6 weeks, not 15 weeks like Emilia. Nonetheless, he had a condition called Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP). ROP is caused by abnormal growth of blood vessels on the retina of the eye, which in severe cases causes the retina to detach. Also, in the 1940's and 50's, a lot of preemies became blind because of high concentration of oxygen being blown into their lungs. At that time, they thought oxygen was good for preemies with breathing difficulities... little did they know that excess oxygen could cause ROP.
Tomorrow, Emilia will get her first - yes, the first of a series of - eye exams. The eye exam is to check whether she has developed ROP and how sever it is. Normally this is checked after 32 weeks of gestational age or 4-6 weeks after birth, so tomorrow is about the time she should get her eye exam. I already read about ROP a while ago and knew an eye exam was coming soon, but I cannot help worrying about it already, knowing that Emilia has been swinging a lot in her oxygen saturation level.
Emilia was born on May 31, 2011, at 25 weeks and 5 days in gestational age. She came home on October 21, 2011 after spending 143 days in the hospital. Today she's a thriving, happy baby who continues to amaze us every single day. This blog records the journey of our miracle baby.
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