A Bump in the Road to Restored Sight

Remember the pictures I just took of the boys? The adorable 3 year and 6 month pictures? I'm so thankful I took them for more than the obvious reason. I have stared at this sweet baby's face, I took the pictures, I edited the pictures, and I saved one of them on my phone for my screen saver. I looked down at my phone at this precious picture, and I noticed something that scared me to death, but I was still hoping that maybe it was just this picture.

See that left eye? I just knew it was crossed. I mean, it's pretty obvious, right? I quickly sat on the computer and went through every single picture. I couldn't find a single one that didn't have that little booger turning in. Because I have done more research than I probably should on Grant's condition, I already knew what was happening. But I still hoped for the best, and prayed it was a fluke. His eyes shake really bad, and I was hoping maybe I snapped the camera when they were shaking.

I called Wayne and our parents to tell them about it, and then I called our PO. He asked me to email him a picture. (Side note, this man is great. What other doctor gives you their cell phone number and email address???!!) It was around noon on Thursday of last week. I knew he would probably call me back after seeing patients, which he did. I had emailed him several of the pictures, and he confirmed what I already knew. His left eye was definitely turning, but he did give me a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, it was the angle of the pictures. He asked if we could come in first thing Monday morning.

I watched those baby blues all weekend, and at times I would see the eye cross and at other times I thought I was loosing my mind. (These emotions took me back to when we first realized something was wrong with Grant's eyes.)

Monday morning came, and Dr. Metz's nurse came in. She did her check up on him, and she definitely saw the eye crossing. I think at this time my shoulders began to slump. I was about to hear what we had been praying against all weekend.

Dr. Metz saw us right after, and confirmed it. What has happened is for whatever reason, his left eye is much, much weaker than his right eye. If we don't start doing something now, well, it could not be good in the future.

So, we are patching. For four hours every single day. This process will make his left eye work instead of allowing the right eye to do all of the work.

It's only been three days of patching, and it feels like three years. Sweet boy hates it. He cries a lot. Can you blame him? He lived three months blind. He was then given sight. And now we are taking away the vision out of the eye he can see really well in. It's breaking my heart. It's so hard to see your child struggle. And in this process, the struggle is very visual. You can see him trying so hard to get control of that eye. We will do whatever we need to do to make sure he has a life filled with seeing all of God's beautiful creation and the people in it, but I hate that he is having to go through this. hate it. For whatever reason, we were dealt this card. All I know to do at this point is what we are instructed to do, and to praise God that one day without glasses and without patches he will no longer be blind. He will be able to see. That is the end goal in all of this, and that is what we have to focus on.

I jokingly told Dr. Metz this week that I wasn't coming in to see him anymore. It feels like every time we go now days we get bad news. :(

On a positive note, Jacob is a precious, precious child. He has his moments, just like any other three year old boy, but God gave us him first for a reason. And that reason is laughter. When he woke up the first morning Grant was patched, he walked up to him and said, "AAAAAARRRRRG!" You gotta love it!

For those that are still praying for our little fella, keep them coming. We're hoping and praying the patching works. Otherwise, he will have to have an additional surgery on that eye. We already have two surgeries in the future no matter what, and we really don't need any more than that. Every time his eyes are cut on, he has a 20% chance of coming out of it with glaucoma. We're just claiming it at this point that that will not happen.

This is just a bump in the road. At the end of this journey, Grant will have restored sight. He just has to.