Our five-month old daughter has a condition called "ptosis" (pronounced, to-sis). From birth, her right eyelid did not open the same amount as her left eyelid. At 6 weeks we took her to the pedi ophthmalolgist, Dr. Stager Jr in Plano. They said patch and see what happens. Went back a few weeks ago and they recommended surgery to raise the eyelid. Essentially her vision will deteriorate in the right eye until she no longer will see out of it.
Has anyone had this surgery? Know someone who has had surgery for ptosis? Any experience with Dr. Tong, he is the surgeon who Dr. Stager uses. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Waiting on the baby to get closer to 18 pounds (she is 13 pounds now) before doing the surgery - probably in a couple months. Thank you!
My whole family is in medicine, and everyone recomended Dr. Stager. When I first started going to him we lived in Little Elm and drove all the way to Highland Park!!
Feel safe with him, if that's who they use I would feel comfortable.
My daughter has a lazy eye, but we are still using the patch hoping it gets better in time to avoid surgery. We do have family that did it and it went great.
Good Luck!!
C.,
We haven't used Dr. Tong for surgery, but my son has been seeing him for 2 years and he is doing amazing things!!! I am VERY happy with him as a Dr. The only frustrating this is his office hours. He is only in the Plano office on Wed and Fri afternoons.
At three son was diagnosed with a bunch of different eye issues and now he can actually see! It's a blessing. Good luck, I know eye issues with your baby can be scary.
Hi C.,
My mother in laws mother had this surgery done. As she got older, her eyelid started to droop and block her vision so she had the surgery and there was no major complications at all. She recovered quickly and was very glad she got it done. She was even awake at the time of surgery but I doubt that would be possible to do to a young child.
I would definitely get it done for your daughter if it's going to affect her vision and I'm sure it helps to get it done at such a young age because that way she won't truly realize what happened and be back to seeing normally again in no time.
I'm not sure of the doctor you mentioned because her mom had the surgery done in Indiana. Don't worry though, she'll do great!
Take care!
My husband had another kind of surgery with Dr. Stager, not Tong, but I cannot say enough great things about their practice. He has also seen 2 of my children to see if they have the same problem that my husband underwent surgery for and they were all wonderful.
I am usually anti-surgery, but in this case it seems like a good idea. HOWEVER, I have had very negative experiences with both Stager Sr and Stager Jr. I would get another opinion as I question the ethics and expertise of those physicians.
Hi C.-
I'm sorry you are having to worry about all of this when you should just be enjoying your baby girl. I don't know anything about ptosis, but I know how scary surgery can be for your little one, and my experience with Dr. Tong was fantastic. Of course, you are scared not only for the safety of your child, but also about the anesthesia and cosmetic issues that come with having surgery on her face. My baby had a dermoid cyst growing rapidly on his eyelid and was 9 months old and about 13 pounds when we he had his surgery at the Pediatric Surgery Center in Plano (HIGHLY RECOMMEND that location if possible). The support staff there is amazing, the anesthesiologist was so caring and kind, and above all, Dr. Tong was great and did a beautiful job on my son. My baby is back to his wonderfully perfect little self and until I read this post, I actually completely forgot about the surgery (he had it 6 months ago).
Best wishes to your family and I hope all goes well whichever direction you choose to take.
My son was born with a ptosis. His was not severe, just cosmetic. We had him checked by our pediatrician, eye doctor and opthmalogist and they all said it was not affecting his eyesight. It just made him look sleepy. We went to Dr. James Merritt and he said that the older you wait the better the results are likely to be and he preferred to wait until at least four years old. He came highly recommended and is well-known. He told us up front that it often took more than one surgery to correct. We were pretty pleased, but it did end up taking two surgeries. We waited until he was five and everything went very smoothly. It was day surgery at Children's and my son had no problem with it. After waiting a year, I still felt his eyelid was droopy and the doctor agreed, so we did the surgery again when he was eight. Again it was day surgery at Children's and my son took it like a pro. His eyelid looked a little bad for about a week or so but it healed quickly. I kept him home from school for a few days, but he felt fine. I was just anxious about him getting it hurt.
His eyes look great now for the most part. I have noticed that when he is looking down (like when reading) that the eye that was fixed is actually open more than his other eye. Kind of creepy looking, but most people would never notice it. From what I have researched, it is very difficult to get them just perfect, but if you look at most people, their eyes are not identical. Almost everyone has some slight ptosis that increases with age.
I would be a little concerned about it being done so early. Perhaps hers is more severe than my son's. He had no vision problems at all. I just hated that I had no decent pictures of him for the first eight years of his life, because the ptosis always showed up more in a photograph. I learned to try to take his picture in a profile or a three quarter view with his bad eye away from the camera.
The good thing about surgery on young children, is they seem to recover very quickly and have no anxiety. My other son had hand surgery when he was only 11 months old and he went through it very easily. The scariest thing is having the anesthesia. You just never know how they will react. Luckily, both of my kids did great.
