Our Jakey discovery

I just wanted to update you all on what's been going on around our house lately. I am by no means a helicopter mom. I don't think worrying is necessary in any situation and I prefer to just roll with things. This is all a good theory, until something potentially large shows up on the "life radar". A few months ago I read an article on msnbc about two women who had met in a chat room for pregnant women. They lived across the Atlantic from each other, but became friends. After the birth of one of the daughters, the mom posted a picture for her friend to see. The picture showed a cute little girl with one white eye. To me, it looked like a glare from a lamp or something.

The mom who received the picture saw the glare and remembered an article SHE had read about retinoblastoma. A cancer that forms on the retina of small children, usually under 5. She emailed her friend right away and told her about this. The daughter was taken to the doctors where they found her eye consumed by this cancer. She lost her eye, but will live and remains cancer free. The email saved her baby's life. To me, the article was interesting, but that was about it. I filed it in my brain and moved on with my life.

You probably recognize this pic, it was recently posted on the blog. I don't know it you can zoom it, but if you can, you will see that Jake has one white eye. I didn't notice at first, but when I looked at every low-light picture of Jake from Christmas, I found the same thing. One completely white eye.

It is much more visible in this one of the boys on Christmas eve. I re-read the article and did some research. The first testing is done with photography. The subject must be in low light and not looking directly at the camera. And no flash red eye reduction must be used. Now to clarify, when I put these pictures on my computer, they had red eye on Tyler, and a little on Jake, so I used the edit and when the red eye was gone, the white remained.
This is about the point that I freaked. Quietly, but I still freaked. I called Brian, showed him the article and the photos and he suggested calling Mitzi, our amazing pediatrician. I did and took Jake in on Monday morning. She did some basic tests and found that he is lacking blood vessels behind his right eye. She said it was probably no big deal but she would do a vision screening. Last may Jake was 20/20 in each eye. Last Monday he could barely see from his right eye when she tested him. Imagine the top letter on the eye chart, that was what Jake could see.

She recommended an eye doctor and I left. I called and the soonest they could see him was the 15th. Later Mitzi called and told me she got us in to the eye doctor the next morning at 8. They would open early for us because she was concerned about this. At this point I really freaked, again quietly and to myself, but I freaked. I came home and cleaned out my whole room, re-arranged the furniture....anything to keep from worrying.

I took him in the next morning and after testing (including dilating his eyes, which is sick especially since Jake's eyes are so big) they found that in the last 9 months Jake has developed a severe lazy eye. His brain has decided to let that eye go, killing all the blood vessels in the retina, producing the white glare. Probably within the next year he would be completely blind in his right eye and be unable to regain his vision. Fortunately we caught it. He will be the cutest 4 year old in glasses ever! Although I will say, having to special order this crazy prescription for glasses right after Christmas was a little painful!

So, to all you moms and aunts and whatever else you all are, look at your kids pictures! And I've decided a little bit of hovering and worrying isn't a bad thing. Imagine how I would feel if I hadn't taken him in and he had lost his sight. When I asked Jake why he didn't tell me he couldn't see, he just smiles and said in a "duh mom" voice......"I just keep the other eye open and I can see."

If you are interested, the original article is found on msnbc.com, just search for baby's eye cancer should bring it up. I'm having trouble with the link.