The Day We Learned About Distichiasis

From the time she was a baby, Brooke has been  blessed to have beautiful long, thick eyelashes.  About six months ago, her right eye was really bothering her and when I took a look to see what was wrong, I discovered a giant eyelash digging into her eye.  I did my best to get it out, but to no avail.  It was attached but not in the row with its other nice polite eyelash friends, but instead this distichia had gone rogue and was growing out of a spot not designated for eyelash production. 

I tried hard to turn it so that it wouldn’t poke into her eye, but this rogue eyelash was also into trichiasis which meant it was growing back toward the eye and poking the cornea.  Ouch. 

This is the part of the story that still amazes me.  It was bothering her so much, that when I told Brooke I would have to pluck the rogue eyelash, SHE DIDN’T EVEN CARE.  She just wanted it out.  I did it and she was awesome about it.  I was SO GLAD it was O-V-E-R.  One thing I knew from that experience was that I NEVER wanted to do that again… EVER!

Fast forward about two months and as we were sitting down in Subway to enjoy lunch, Brooke’s eye started driving her crazy and when I look to see what was wrong, I found Rogue Eyelash version 2.0 – it was longer, thicker, pokier and more determined than ever to burrow its way to the the inside her eyeball.  Once again I was horrified at the task at hand, and once again Brooke was a champ.  Her only concern was that she was starving and really wanted me to hurry so that she could get to her sandwich. 

Fast forward about two  months to our visit to the eye doctor.  I had actually forgotten all about Rouge Lash 2.0 but the eye doctor saw during the exam and was shocked that she hadn’t even mentioned it to me yet  He explained distichiasis and trichiasis and referred us to an orbital specialist who said he could try to destroy the hair follicle with a type of electrolysis so we wouldn’t have this problem every 6-8 weeks and so that ultimately she wouldn’t have permanent damage to her eye.

So today was follicle destruction day and Brooke did great.  She was so brave!  The staff treated us so well and right after she arrived, they brought her a little stuffed dog to keep her company.  She was thrilled and immediately name her puppy Dixie Rainbow Hansen.  She chose Dixie because of our friends’ sweet little dog with the same name and Rainbow because “everything is better with rainbows” according to Brooke.

 

 

She was nervous when it was time for her to get on the gurney and head back for surgery but the doctors quickly had her on board with the process when they told her to pretend she was in a parade… they had her at “pretend.”  She also thought her E.T. finger thingy was cool.

Everything went great and now we just wait to see what happens in 6-8 weeks.  He said there is an 80% chance that one treatment will do the trick, otherwise we get to come and buy another $5,000 stuffed animal.