When your world spirals out of control
On Wednesday morning, I innocently posted a blog about my minor shortcomings as a mother and wife. I had no idea that our lives were about to be turned upside down. Maybe that sounds dramatic but when our little lives are tripping along with the most major stresses being hectic schedules and sassy kids and then something like what's happened to us happens, one is really thrown for a loop. So, to get to the point, three days ago or so, I was looking at Adam while he told some funny story or other during a mealtime and I noticed his right pupil looked....odd. Almost like it had a gray cloud in it:
It's pretty subtle but I think if you look closely at the photo above, you'll see it too. See how the pupil on the left (his right pupil) looks cloudy-grayish and not clear-black like the one on the right (his left)? I pointed it out to Stu but he said he didn't see what I was seeing. I alternately covered each eye and asked Adam to tell me how many fingers I was holding up. When I covered his right eye, he pointed at my fingers and tried to count (he doesn't quite get that concept yet). When I covered his left eye, he pulled at my hand and said, "I can't see" and giggled. I figured he was just messing around so I let it go. On Wednesday, I looked at him again and thought, "There's just something not right here" and made an appointment with his pediatrician. When she shined a light in his eye, she immediately said, "My goodness, you're right, there is something in there." Fast forward....we made one appointment with a pediatric ophthalmologist for the next morning but I couldn't wait so rushed him to another ophthalmologist who told us Adam had a cataract in his right eye that was so severe, his sight was very impaired, if he could see at all through that eye. We were referred to a retinal specialist to determine whether there was something wrong within the eye since the ophthalmologist couldn't see past the cataract. The retinal specialist confirmed the cataract in the right eye and also saw a cataract in his left eye and referred us to a pediatric ophthalmology surgeon at the U of M. Adam needs to have surgery as soon as possible because the longer he goes with impaired or no vision in his eyes, the greater the possibility that his brain will "turn off" the signals coming from the optic nerve and he will be permanently blind. He will have to have the cataracts (his damaged lenses) removed and replaced with intra-ocular lenses (synthetic lenses). Even after his surgery/surgeries, from what I understand right now Adam will have to undergo extensive therapy to train his eyes to work together again.
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| A photo taken of Adam on January 27th |
It's pretty subtle but I think if you look closely at the photo above, you'll see it too. See how the pupil on the left (his right pupil) looks cloudy-grayish and not clear-black like the one on the right (his left)? I pointed it out to Stu but he said he didn't see what I was seeing. I alternately covered each eye and asked Adam to tell me how many fingers I was holding up. When I covered his right eye, he pointed at my fingers and tried to count (he doesn't quite get that concept yet). When I covered his left eye, he pulled at my hand and said, "I can't see" and giggled. I figured he was just messing around so I let it go. On Wednesday, I looked at him again and thought, "There's just something not right here" and made an appointment with his pediatrician. When she shined a light in his eye, she immediately said, "My goodness, you're right, there is something in there." Fast forward....we made one appointment with a pediatric ophthalmologist for the next morning but I couldn't wait so rushed him to another ophthalmologist who told us Adam had a cataract in his right eye that was so severe, his sight was very impaired, if he could see at all through that eye. We were referred to a retinal specialist to determine whether there was something wrong within the eye since the ophthalmologist couldn't see past the cataract. The retinal specialist confirmed the cataract in the right eye and also saw a cataract in his left eye and referred us to a pediatric ophthalmology surgeon at the U of M. Adam needs to have surgery as soon as possible because the longer he goes with impaired or no vision in his eyes, the greater the possibility that his brain will "turn off" the signals coming from the optic nerve and he will be permanently blind. He will have to have the cataracts (his damaged lenses) removed and replaced with intra-ocular lenses (synthetic lenses). Even after his surgery/surgeries, from what I understand right now Adam will have to undergo extensive therapy to train his eyes to work together again.
Here are pictures of his eyes after his pupils were dilated. I feel like you can REALLY tell from these pictures (if you click on each individual picture, it will open in another window larger so you can see even better):
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