The occularist enters the picture roughly 6 weeks after the enucleation surgery. When Mason's eye was removed, his eyeball was replaced with a permanent implant. The Dr.'s also attached the extraocular muscles to the implant. They then closed the conjunctival tissue over the implant, within the socket. This gives his prosthesis the movement and space it needs within the socket.
Once Mason had healed a few weeks from the enucleation, the occularist came during an EUA and took an impression of Mason's socket - capturing the size and contours as he was sleeping. After that impression, the occularist made the prosthesis over two appointments in his clinic.
The first appointment (yesterday) he painted the prosthetic eye, matching the color and detail of Mason's iris. The second appointment (today) was the fitting process where he (+ parents) inserted the new prosthesis and made any necessary minor adjustments.
Yay for Mason! Yay for Occularist Milne! It looks superb.
These are such beautiful boys.
Sippy cup and all. That Benson is a constant crack up.
This is Mason prior to the prosthetic being placed. (above)
This shows the conjunctival tissue over the implant, what it looks like if the prosthetic is out. As time passes, and we see how well Thomas has done with this same scenario, it's not so shocking to look at these boys with the tissue and no eyeball.
It is what it is. It's just a cosmetic blemish - it doesn't change who they are, or what they have the potential to become...
Post on how a prosthetic is placed
Beautiful inside and out, with or without the prosthesis :)
ReplyDeleteI think it just proves how special these boys (and their parents) actually are. The Lord wouldn't give a challenge like this to them if they weren't!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful job the ocularist did! It looks fantastic!
ReplyDeleteA wonderful job, and your boys are so Handsome!!!!!
ReplyDelete