Well, hopefully after a morning at the ophthalmologist's office, a visit to the hospital, and then scheduled doctor's appointments for every day for the rest of this week, we are on our way to regaining some vision (although it's not guaranteed). When you have a swollen optic nerve, the causes could vary greatly from an early symptom of MS (Multiple Sclerosis) to something as weird and random as just a swollen nerve. So we can't really tell what is causing this whole thing to happen until we can take a deeper look inside my head/body. It looks like an MRI might be in my future later this week once the Vanderbilt doctor I am seeing on Thursday takes a look at me, but then again he might see no need for that. Who knows? After my ophthalmologist contacted my OB this morning, we learned that the high dose of IV steroid treatment would have little to no effect on the baby so we had the go ahead to do that first to relieve the swelling. On my visual exams on Saturday I had 20/40 vision in my right eye. Today I could only see fingers which apparently is so bad that they don't even give you a number anymore with that. So it has been a big loss of eyesight in the last two days. The swelling had not really increased though, so that was a good sign. After going through several different eye exams, I headed over to the hospital to get my first dose of the IV steroid which they were able to do locally. I will go back tomorrow and Wednesday to take the other two one-hour treatments. On Thursday I will head to the next town over to see the Vanderbilt doctor who comes up to Glasgow, KY once a month (which happens to be this Thursday). I have to say I have been very lucky in the way I have been placed with all these doctors especially since it all began at the local Value Vision and thankfully I can use my medical insurance since this is medical kind of stuff. Because I am doing the IV steroid treatment there is hope that I will regain some vision in my right eye, but then again I might be like this forever. I was hoping glasses could be an option, but since it is nerve related there is no fixing it unless the nerve is fixed, so that is a little discouraging. But I am hoping for the best and should this lead to MS or a tumor or some weird brain disease or whatever else, we know that God is in control and we will get through this. So please keep praying, but we are staying hopeful and as positive as we can.
On a different note, I am glad that my blogger's block is coming to an end. I've missed this whole blogging thing for the last little while. Now I just have to get back to taking lots of pictures and learn to use my other eye while looking through the view finder. :)
Thank you for an update, Stephanie! This is a scary thing to read about, and must be extremely trying for you as you go through a pregnancy and care for Seth. We will keep praying and hoping that the steroids work. I recently had a friend go through brain injury and wake up from a coma (she has a long way to go in rehabilitation) but we know God can heal your eye and truly restore your sight. We will pray that he will and that he will act quickly.
ReplyDeletePrayers. Prayers. Prayers. <3
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