Eye Appointment, Etc...

Rebekah did not have a good night last night. She woke up many times and threw up again about 2 am. Mommy didn't get much sleep.

We were off to see the opthamologist at about noon, dropping Sarah off at Aunt TT's on the way. Rebekah got sick in the van a couple of times on the way. It wasn't looking real well for her to cooperate with the eye doctor. I had tried to medicate her so that she would be a little more calm during the appointment, but it didn't seem to work.

She wasn't real cooperative, but the doctor was able to do some looking/testing. She reiterated some of the potential concerns with the radiation that Rebekah has had - cataracts, blindness, laziness, the need for correction, etc...

There are no signs, yet, of cataracts. Those would be expected later.

The left eye (the one that got the worst of the radiation) does not appear to be irritated and her eye is moist, so we don't need to be giving her eye drops right now. (Previously, they warned us about dry eye and gave us drops to put in her eye. I haven't been using them because she has been tearing so much, but I wasn't sure if the tearing was from irritation and the drops would help with that. Rebekah is not a fan of eye drops, so I didn't want to force them on her if they were not necessary.)

The tear duct on the lower eye lid seems to be constricted or plugged. This is something that can often be corrected.

The orbit around her left eye is smaller than around her right eye. There may be some ability to stretch it.

The doctor wasn't able to determine if Rebekah should have some vision correction, since Rebekah wasn't cooperating.

The doctor is referring us to a doctor at Casey Eye Institute (at OHSU - Oregon Health Sciences University) who can deal with the tear duct, determine what should be done about the orbit around the eye and have the ability to do some testing/evaluation under sedation and have several pediatric specialists in one location. She was going to call the other doctor and have his office contact us to schedule an appointment. We will expect to go in for a consultation and then potentially schedule another appointment for further testing and possibly correcting the tear duct. With it being December and Rebekah continuing with chemo, who knows what kind of scheduling we will be able to make happen.

We called the oncology clinic this morning about Rebekah's face swelling. It is a little bothersome to Mommy and Daddy and Rebekah seems to be irritated by it as well. Her mouth seems to be sore as she is drooling again and when she coughs she often expels mucous. She is not using many of her words and I think that is mostly due to a sore mouth. The nurse at clinic wasn't overly concerned and checked with the doctor, who wasn't too concerned either but would expect to look at it on Friday during our appointment. So we wait...