At 6 weeks of age Esme wasn't smiling yet. Our Health Visitor in Scotland noticed this may be due to her not focusing on people's faces. She noticed that Esme had a symptom called Nystagmus.  Nystagmus is a condition that causes involuntary eye movements. She was then referred to our local GP, who then referred her to neurologists and ophthalmologists in Edinburgh.

Esme underwent many tests, including an MRI, blood tests, visual evoked potential, and I think an electroretinogram. So hard to remember the name of them all.

By 4 months old she was prescribed -10 glasses, and seen to have at least 3 others symptoms; retinal dystrophy, esotropia, and high level myopia. Although the symptoms were identified, we still did not know the cause of them.

We moved to Northern Ireland in September 2018, where Esme quickly got put into the healthcare system here and begun seeing specialist by November. She was then prescribed glasses of -13.

At our last eye appointment on April 1st, 2019 Dr E McLoone used an ocular ultrasound to diagnose Esme with Posterior Staphyloma. This is  a condition that has caused the back of her eye to be malformed. There is no known reason why this has happened to her, however the Dr then recommended we register as partially sighted.

Esme is now 16 months old and is a very happy, smiley little girl. She is not walking yet but she gets around well and has begun to stand on her own (something she gets very excited about when she does). She enjoys going to nursery, swimming lessons and playing with her 3.5 year old brother. 

Guide dogs has assigned us a habilitation officer, Emma. As soon as Esme starts walking she will be working very closely with us to help Esme move around safely and independently as well as monitor her sensory and motor skills.

In December of 2018, we started sponsoring a lovely guide dog puppy named Eve, we are now doing the 5K fun run and I am sure we will continue to support Guide Dogs in many ways as they will be supporting Esme.