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!