Friday, March 28, 2008

Anna's first eye appointment

At Anna's 6 week checkup with the pediatrician, the nurse practitioner noticed an "abnormality" when she checked her eyes. They look through a special instrument that turns the pupil red (it looks like when you take a picture and you have "red-eye") - this is called a red reflex test. A normal eye should just show a round, red pupil. In Anna's right eye, there was a round, red pupil with a little tiny black dot "at 3 o'clock" on the pupil. I tried and tried to find a picture on the internet but couldn't find one that showed exactly what it looked like - so I drew a picture...this is the best I can show you...click on the picture to see it bigger...

I asked what it was and the nurse practitioner said, "It could be nothing...or it could be a cataract...or it could be something else." Nice. That's helpful. So she sent us to an ophthalmologist to find out for sure. After a long, grueling month of waiting, she had her appointment on Wednesday. Then after 3 hours of sitting in one waiting room, then another, then another...the ophthalmologist came in and looked through some funny instrument and declared that she has an iris cyst. She was very surprised to see this and said that she hasn't seen one in a very long time. The good news is, it is not a tumor and it should go away by itself without any complications. It is just filled with fluid and at some point, it will just deflate and go away. Worst case scenario, it could grow and impair her vision at which point the doctor would laser it away. They noticed that she is still crossing her eyes - you know how newborns do - and that is ok until they reach about 4 months - so I am taking her back next month to have her pupils dilated just to make sure there is nothing else going on and hopefully she will not still be crossing her eyes. She doesn't do it that often - mostly just when the doctor was shining a light in her eyes! Sheesh - sometimes I wanna cross my eyes too when people are staring at me with bright lights!! Anyway, I'm glad to have that appointment done because I was really trying hard not to stress out about it - wondering if my sweet baby was going to need cataract surgery or something - I'm so grateful that it is not that bad.


This is just one more thing that strengthens my testimony of "a supreme being". The human body is so complex and I feel like we take so much for granted - there are so many things that can go wrong - it is truly a miracle that we function day in and day out - for years and years and years - only our Heavenly Father could have created such an amazing thing.


PS
Anna found her thumb!! How stinkin' adorable is that??? I guess I can throw those pacifiers out, huh?

5 comments:

Jenn said...

Your mom told me about Annas eye. Glad you were able to get it done and that you got some good news.

p.s. keep the pacifiers, get rid of the thumb (i'm having terrible flashbacks from my childhood!!)

Kristie said...

She gags on the pacifiers - absolutely refuses them - I don't have much choice in the matter! Although I don't mind it so much - she sleeps better now!! I think we just breed thumbsuckers - we'll deal with the consequences!!

kelly said...

That is so cute, sometimes I wish Peyton would find her thumb! She wont take a pacifier either, ugh. If it makes you feel any better, Peyton still crosses her eyes too. My sister is very worried! The Doctor assured me that it was fine though.

kelly said...

I just read your coment about gagging. That what Peyton does too. She either pushes the pacifier out of her mouth with her tongue or she acts like she is going to choke. All 3 of my boys wouldn't take a pacifier or suck their thumbs either. Wierd, I wonder if things like that can run in families, I never would have thought that.

RMCarter said...

I am glad it's not serious and hopefully it will go away on it's own soon. How scary that must have been! Just shows the power of prayer.

(P.S. I think the thumb sucking is adorable!)