Eye update part 2

Ellie had her eye appointment in Iowa City and the results were good again. She was 20/40 in the right eye. A little fluxuation that they said could be due to the dryness of her eye at time of reading pictures and the scar tissue on her cornia from the infections. She may also test better in Waterloo because they see her more often and she is getting used to identifying the pictures they have her look at. In IC the pictures were really different and it wasn't as easy to identify them. So the doctor is not worried about the little fluxuations. He is happy to see more improvement and asked that we continue the atripine drops in her left eye. So we continue with all the eyedrops to keep them healthy, wet and improving.

Her last scab came off last night and didn't scab back over very much at all. So we are happy to see this morning that there is a very tiny spot now where the last scab was. At the end of January when Ellie has her next MRI Lonnie at Dr. Menezes' office will look at her scar and if it's all clear she will set up an appointment so we can meet with both surgeons to talk about the next surgery option for the nerve graph for her face. So as of now it looks like we have a month break before we have to go to IC again. Yay!

I got a call this week from the Pediatric Specialty Clinics in IC to set up an appointment for her genetics testing the oncologist suggested we think about doing to see if she has a gene for brain tumors or not. If she does then it will explain more of why she got this one. Then we will test our family to see if one of us have it also and are at risk. They have a Waterloo Clinic where they do this testing but our appointment isn't until March 4th. So at least the appointment is in sight and we aren't still wondering when they will get to us.

We all feel so blessed to have Ellie with us this Holiday season. Everything is so much more special once you've been through something like this. The Lord has carried us through this time and we praise his birth this season. We are thankful we can be at home celebrating with everyone and not stuck in the hospital like so many families with sick children. Please pray for those families have to be separated for the Holidays due to a sick child who can't be around the rest of the family. We hope and pray you all have a wonderful, blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!

eye update part 1

Ellie had an eye appointment with Dr. Puk in Waterloo to follow up on the two eye infections she had a while ago. He says the ointment and eye drops we've been using are working well. He even noticed that her blinking is getting stronger and her eye is able to close more during blinks. Then he asked her to close her eyes really tight and her right eye closed much quicker and almost all the way. So he noticed a big improvement. When he pointed it out I noticed it also. So he wants to see her back in a month with the same antibiotic regimen we have been using continuing. Then he won't need to see her very often if things still go good with no infections. When doing the vision test she made it to the 20/30 screen in her right eye. Last two or three times and the last IC appointment she could only see 20/50. So there has been another improvement in her eyesight. So the eyedrop in her left eye she gets to help the vision in her right eye is helping also still. This is great news to us.

There is another scheduled Iowa City eye clinic appointment for Monday the 14th of Dec. This Monday. So we will make it through that with hopefully as good findings as today and then drop in to see Dr. Menezes PA so look at Ellie's scab one more time afterward.

Woo hoo!!

Oops!

I noticed that people have been responding to the posts to the gmail account. I don't ever check that for emails therefore if you sent an email in response to a blog post and never got a response from me it wasn't intentional. I didn't even realize you would get my gmail email account info. So I never even thought to check the actual email. So I apologize for never responding to the many emails you have all sent to the gmail account. If you want to email me and me actually read it please use asmiley35@yahoo.com. I check this one all the time at work. Not so much at home. Thank You