Recently my son’s eyes were checked under anesthesia to make sure he didn’t have any of the nonsense my daughter has going on that’s caused her to lose over ninety percent of her vision. He’s fine, which is good news, but we all agreed it was something that needed to be confirmed. We had a nice time at the eye center that day, even though we had a long time to wait and got pushed off even later because of other cases.
My son was completely fine with the whole day, mostly because he got to play on his iPad. He wasn’t afraid of anything, although he didn’t like the three rounds of stinging drops much. He walked back into the operating room and without too much fuss breathed in the gas and was asleep.
During our hours there several of our doctors stopped in. They each took time to speak to my son and have a conversation with me. We talked about how my daughter’s vision was doing and what we had learned from Dr. Trese in Detroit.
Now folks, I know doctors are busy. They’re in there going from patient to patient in the operating rooms as the nurses, anesthesiologists, staff are ready. That doesn’t leave a lot of time to chit chat with parents. But our doctors took that time. They didn’t seem rushed and made sure all my questions were answered, even though we were’t there for my daughter that day.
As my daughter’s pediatric retina surgeon was about to leave, he asked me if my husband and I would be willing to be contacted by other families. They see many cases and some of them are challenging to diagnose, some never even have a diagnosis. And that’s hard—not knowing why your child is going blind and if it can be stopped or reversed.
My daughter’s doctor said some very kind things about how we’d been handling the situation and how our experience might be a comfort and help to other families who are going through similar things. Guys, I was flattered. I mean really flattered. I told him we would be more than happy to be a reference family for other patients and to feel free to share our contact information.
We have tried to be objective, even though there is so much emotional about the situation. We have tried to be rational, even when all we want to do is be irrational and blameful (is ‘blameful’ a word?) And we have tried to hold it together through everything so that our daughter keeps being the happy and carefree person she’s always been.
I suppose we’ve been successful because my daughter continues to be one of the most joyful people I’ve ever known.
The Big Boy Update: My son was bonkers mad crazy energetic at dinner tonight. He was kicking the car seat on the way home so I challenged him to a race around the house. Five laps around the outside of the house. Who would be the winner? We started at the front door after we’d turned on the flood lights and my daughter and husband counted the laps and cheered us on. My son beat me by about four paces. He was huffing and puffing at the end but he was happy because he loves to win.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: One of my daughter’s favorite songs right now is Proxy by Martin Garrix. It’s a club dance song with only two lines in the whole song, both being, “put your hands up!” My daughter was in the bathroom the other day when the song came on. She gaily sang out the hands up line, threw her hands in the air and started jumping around like she was in a club. I swear, I didn’t teach her that…I don’t think.
Fitness Update: Seven miles running this afternoon unexpectedly. I got a sitter with three minutes notice, changed my shoes and put on some running gear and ran out the door to chase down my neighbor. I ran past Uncle Jonathan on the way out.
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