PrayForAlethea: Eye Appointment August 2008

We had a big scare at the end of August when Alethea went in for her (now state mandated) Kindergarten eye exam. The doctor found a mass in her right eye which he was unable to identify--meaning it could be scarring or it could be cancerous. We were very grateful to be immediately sent to a second, more specialized doctor who indicated that the mass was scarring and fairly large. He was surprised that she could see as well as she could with that eye.

After talking with St. Jude, Dr. Sima requested that Alethea be checked out by the eye doctors there so we took all the kids out of school and made the trek to Memphis. Here we found out most importantly that the mass was in fact scar tissue and not cancerous in any way. It is speculated that the scarring occured from a fungal infection, probably the one that occured in February 2004 which sent our little angel to ICU. The other thing that we found out is that Alethea cannot see "fairly well" in her right eye. When using a sticky patch that she could not maneuver around, the doctor at the Jude asked Ali, "Can you see what is on the chart?" Ali responded quickly and matter of factly, "No. You put the patch on my 'see eye' silly."

So Ali and her "see eye" went to see another doctor who reiterated the news and also reinforced the fact that there was nothing that she or we or anyone can do to rehabilitate the eye or get any of the eyesight back that has been lost. She was given a prescription for glasses (her left eye needs just a little correction) mostly for protection of the good eye and we were sent home with directions to continue to see our eye doctor in Sterling and visit the eye doctors at St. Jude during yearly visits.