From autotest_list@wsd.wline.se %WGDATE%
From: DOWN-SYN@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Diane White)
To: autotest_list@wsd.wline.se (Multiple recipients of mailing list "AutoTest_List")
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Sender: autotest_list@wsd.wline.se (Mailing list "AutoTest_List")
Subject: [AutoTest_List] Re: Glaucoma
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
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Message-ID: <199806090203.CAA12196@trapdoor.aracnet.net>
Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 02:03:06 GMT

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>At 08:43 PM 6/7/98 EDT, Carrie Strachan wrote:
>
>>Has anyone else had these eye issues or
>>know about the occurance of Glaucoma and the testing?  We want to make sure
>>that we do everything necessary to help Mathew retain or enhance the
>vision he
>>has now but we have typically gone to "teaching/research" facilities such as
>>UCLA  Jewel Stein Center etc. in which the doctors are absolute experts in
>>their field but sometimes we don't know if Mathew is being used as a
>"teaching
>>case" rather than a typical patient, since there have been very few cases of
>>Down Syndrome children with these eye problems?
>
HI,
My son, Aidan, now 3 yrs old, had a cataract removed from one eye at 8 1/2
months of age.  We were told by our ped. opthamologist that the incidence of
glaucoma increases not from to DS, but rather, due to cataracts.  Aidan is,
therefore, tested for glaucoma yearly and so far, so good.  But I have met a
couple of families whose child had a cataract removed and subsequently
developed glaucoma.
Our opthamologist is very open to emails and if you wish to discuss this
with him, please email me privately and I will provide you with his address.
He is a well-respected pediatric opthamologist out of Sick Kids hospital in
Toronto, Canada.
BTW- we, too, went through the patching but it did not "work".  Apparently
in up to 90% of cases of "unilateral" cataracts, vision simply does not
optimize in the poor eye even with contact lenses.  But Aidan sees
exceptionally well out of his good eye!

Regards,
Diane, mom to Alex (5 nda) and Aidan (3 DS), Brampton, Ontario
