Eye Doctor

One of the major symptoms of Battens is blindness. Macayla went to the eye doctor and her eyes show little change. There is some pigment change in the retina which would correspond to any loss of peripheral vision. The doctor said that it was still so slight of a change that he probably wouldn’t be concerned about it or mention it accept that he knows Macayla’s condition and history and that is the only thing that makes it noteworthy. We had noticed that Macayla would respond less to visual stimulus in the peripheral of her field of vision. She also seems to have lost some depth perception and has a hard time finding people or objects at a distance. Her optic nerves appear to be in good shape. Basically, the doctor said that structurally the eye is good, but it is difficult to tell objectively how good Macayla’s eye sight really is since she cannot communicate what she observes. There is no way to know for sure how the brain atrophy is affecting her visual cortex. So, we just have to watch and be aware that she will obviously respond better to images that are directly in her focus. We are thankful that her vision is doing as well as it is.