More about Sophie's surgery Well, we just got back from meeting the surgeon. She's very nice and we feel confident that she'll do a fine job with Sophie. However.... she thought Sophie's case was more serious than we originally thought it was. We've been thinking, "Okay, a little tuck and she'll be perfect," and it's not going to be that simple. They are concerned about Sophie's lack of muscle tone in that eyelid; they also can't determine whether the eye itself can look up all the way. Apparently, the fact that her eyes move left, right, and down together has no bearing on whether they move up together or not. So we'll find out if the eye muscle is also damaged/didn't develop/whatever. It's not something we'd ever thought of - we thought her eye was just fine (and it might be - but we can't tell yet). So here's what we're doing: On Dec. 2, the doctor will perform surgery on Sophie (I HATE saying that!) and will tighten the muscle and her eyelid so that it's open. She may not be able to close it all the way, but we'd rather have her see. She will have dissolving stitches and it will be an outpatient thing - she won't be in the hospital overnight and they want her eye to be uncovered by bandages so that she can work on her vision as soon as possible. We also opted for a procedure where one of us will be in scrubs and will hold Sophie while they administer the anesthesia (gas) - the alternative is that they would give her a medication that would make her really happy and not care what they're doing (so they could give her gas), also it would give her a temporary memory loss. But we feel like (a) she's not going to remember any of this anyway and (b) we don't want to give her two medications when she only really needs one, so we're not doing going that route. There is a very strong possibility that she will need another surgery when she's 2 or 3. The next step is to make a sling that holds up her eyelid and attaches underneath her forehead - she would open her eyes further by lifting her eyebrows. (This is all under the skin, nobody would see anything.) The second part of it is that some doctors like to do the same procedure on the good eyelid so they match. Our doctor feels (and we heartily agree) that nobody should mess with a good eye. But there is a possibility that she may need the sling procedure when she's older, if this first surgery doesn't do what we hope it will. That's the latest... you now now everything we do. We promise we'll keep you posted. Please, please, please, start praying like crazy. This all may sound like we're really calm, but we're pretty upset. The only one who doesn't really seem to care yet is Sophie, who flirted madly with everyone in the waiting room and charmed them all. (Naturally!)