Beginning to look a lot like Christmas (in Grant's eyeballs)

Rough Draft, I obviously have a couple more pictures to add here.



Grant loves being under Christmas trees, Lincoln did at his 1st Christmas too! Grant stares up at whatever amount of LED light he can see, and bats his hands at the bell ornaments I always make sure are close to him. This is his grandma Reger's tree though.


Should I get the crappy news out of the way first, and then post the funny pictures of Lincoln and Grant I've had sitting on the memory card for a few weeks? Yeah, I guess that's what I'll do. Like I've said before, it's kind of a downer so feel free to read the last section, the cheerful part first then return to the top. Whatever you want. Here goes......

Grant's tear duct probe was Wed. It went very well, and the difference is immediate and drastic. It's his Christmas present to Mommy, that I don't have to wipe off his eyes and face constantly anymore with yucky yellow stuff constantly flowing from his eyes. I'm so glad! And it makes him a much happier boy as well. Here's a picture of what he'd look like most mornings when he woke up with his eyelids just glued shut. It would make him really mad. Poor guy.

So that is just awesome! But the exam performed at the same time was just awful. Actually it's about as bad as we thought, but seeing an extreme close-up picture view of his eyes made it obvious how bad it really is and was devastating. Here's a picture of Lincoln's eye at one of his exams under anesthesia, the dr dilates the patient's eyes and uses a retina-cam to take a picture into the pupil. Ideally you see through the cornea and look at any abnormalities in the retina. (those lines on the sides of Linc's eyes are little veins on his cornea that aren't supposed to be there. Medicine is helping those shrink away.) This is a pretty close to normal picture though, of what you're supposed to see, so I'll post it so you can compare. You're supposed to see this red circle thing in these pictures like this.

And here's a picture of Grant's eyes with the retina-cam. Cannot even begin to see into the pupil, or even if there are any veins on the cornea, because it's got all this junk in front of it. It looks like a blizzard! And remember, your pupil is what you see out of. So these are the messy corneas Grant looks through all the time. Which is why he sees probably only light but can't tell exactly where it's coming from or track it(that's light perception vs. light projection), moving shadows, brightly colored lights, fluorescent objects and..... well, I guess that's about it. I pretty much knew that already, but seeing a picture of it like this was awful.

The pediatric ophthalmologist confirmed a cornea transplant is the only option to improve this, and even after a transplant it's so likely to reject and leave him worse off than he started, that he told us to give serious thought to just not doing it on either eye. It could cause detached retina, glaucoma, or several other things that could result in them having to remove the whole thing and put in a glass eye. He told us we could do it, and there's a chance it might work, even less that it'll work long term. Or maybe instead we could put our time and energy and resources into learning braille and getting him orientation & mobility training, purchasing a white cane and/or guide dog etc. etc. That was his suggestion.

So it's a lot to consider. Not fun. On the bright side, he's sweet and adorable and growing fast because he eats constantly. So with that as a lead in, here's the recent non medical, fun pictures of the boys.

Couple of pictures of Grant in a Santa suit. Merry Christmas!



Best part of Thanksgiving is totally the LEFTOVERS!! I love it. And I know there's bunches of post-Thanksgiving recipes for turkey-stuffing casserole and such, to creatively use your leftovers. But why do that when it's better just in it's original format anyways? Turkey on the left, mashed potatoes+gravy on the right, big pile of cranberry sauce and stuffing in there also...... good stuff! Hey, how many days till Canadian Thanksgiving again? I am already excited. ;)

Lincoln decorated the bottom 3 feet of his Grandma Reger's tree, then proudly grinned for a photo. Oh, and that's her cute doggy Daisy in the background. She's just a tiny, hyper white ball of fluff.


Linc's silly faces!

Boys at the Festival of Trees meeting Santa. And Lincoln is not scared of St. Nick this year! I'm so glad. Still won't talk to him really, but sits shyly on his lap and grins instead of screaming.



In a way really impossible to capture in pictures or words, Lincoln is ecstatic about playing in the snow this year, loves all things Christmas with an eagerness that is adorable..... being a 3 year old at Christmas is really fun. I think he's lovin' it.

That's the end of that post! Merry Christmas, maybe I'll post again soon and try to not complain so much next time. Sorry.