Lesson Learned: Part 2

We got Ryan and Gracie up and ready to leave. Ryan was upset about having to go to school, and Gracie was crying, not opening her eyes. I gave Gracie some more pain medicine, put in her eyedrops with Bill's help. I snuggled Ryan for a few minutes while Bill was putting our bags and coffee in the car, then out the door we went.

We dropped Ryan off, and as we were driving away, I saw him in the rearview mirror. He just looked so sad. Ok, kid, that's enough with the heart string pullin' already! Bill and I drove separate so that if we got a good report, he would head on to work.

We find the place, and park. Now that is quite the feat for me, since I am driving the full sized truck downtown, and parking in a garage. Go me! We find the office with no problem, sign in and start filling out yet another mountain of paperwork for yet another Dr's office. I have to say, I'm getting pretty good at them.

Then the wait began. We got there at 10 and weren't seen until a little after 12. Thankfully, Gracie slept most of the time. When she did wake up a little, I was able to get her to finally drink. She hadn't had anything since the night before, and very little at that. She wasn't acting awake, but when I put the sippy cup in her hand she immediately grabbed it and drank the whole thing. I offered more, but she was done. That was a relief, since I had been wondering if we were going to be admitted since she wouldn't drink, and didn't want dehydration to be added to our list.


We finally saw the Dr a little after 12. He came in like we were there for just a routine check. Very layed back, no problem, don't see why everyone is anxious type attitude. We didn't click very well. He proceeds to examine her eyes. Bill and I have to hold her down. He does a very poor attempt to open her eyes, so I do that part too. He puts the dye in, checks with the blue light for about 10 seconds each eye, says, "Yup, looks good." and is done. Now, since I was the one prying her eyes open, I KNOW he didn't get a good look. He maybe saw a quarter of her eye. Then Bill asks what her prognosis is. Will she be able to see, will there be any problems with her vision if she can see? His response, "Yeah, she might be blind, or have problems, but there's no real way to check it yet. Can she read a chart and point to animals or colors?" Um, no, she's 15 months old. No genius child here, just a normal development girl. Nope, she can't read yet, can't talk in full sentences, should I be worried?!! (Read sarcasm).

About this point, I am completely done with this man. I know he has no clue what he's talking about, says since he can't check her eyes out better without putting her under general anesthesia that that's all he can do for today. See you next week. Yup, that's an appointment we will not be making.

So Bill heads off to work, I head home. I meet up with my friend Shannon on the way, and she spends a moment with Gracie. I tell her how upset I was with the care I received, so she starts calling her eye Dr to see where we should be referred. We parted ways with her awaiting a call back.

I call Heidi once again, and she is livid for me. Thank you, Heidi for all your hard work getting us through this! She starts calling around, and gets me a Dr at Baylor that is the creme de la creme for Gracie's problem. I call the office when I get home, and let them know the issues. They call back after checking the schedules, and I get an appointment for Tues. at 3:30, but was told that I was a work-in, and to expect a wait. No problem, I'm getting good at waiting.

That evening, Gracie opened her eyes, and actually played for a bit. She picked up a ball off the floor with a purpose, threw it, and went and retrieved it. SHE COULD SEE!!!! I called everyone under the sun, and grinned like a fool for the whole evening. My daughter really was blessed.

The next morning, Gracie was back to not wanting to play much. She had slept through the night (12 hrs) and had woken up in pain. I gave her pain medication, a little bit of pediasure, eye drops, and she went right back to bed. She only got up every 3-4 hrs, right about the time the medication was wearing off. That afternoon was her appointment, so we go, this time just me and Gracie. Bill had to work, and since Gracie had shown improvement, he was feeling a bit more reassured that everything really was fine. I was as well, but I wanted true reassurance that we were doing all we were supposed to do.

We get to the new Dr's office, fill out more paperwork, and proceed to wait. We got there about 3, and I had really expected to wait for quite some time. Gracie was doing her repeat of yesterday, and was ready to play. She put on quite a show for all the old people there, being cute as a button. They called us back right at 3:30. I was shocked. We went in and were greeted warmly by a couple of resident dr's. They assured me they wouldn't do the exam until Dr. Hammil was ready, and would do it in one fell swoop. The got Gracie's history, and a few minutes later Dr. Hammil came in. What a great man. He had a sense of humor without being arrogant, answered all my questions before I had time to ask them. He was wonderful. And by the way, he could tell that Gracie needed an immune system check up right away, a thing her pediatrician didn't pick up until I asked for it.



The exam wasn't fun, but it was worth it. She wasn't so much in pain, as scared. He opened her eyelids with a speculum that kept them open, and was able to truly assess her eye. While he was doing that, he had one of the residents checking the ingrediants of the spray that got in her eyes. I was told it was a peroxide burn, and while that is still bad, its not as bad as an alkaline burn that we were thinking she had. He told me that it was healing nicely (which I was able to see for myself, and could already see new growth to both eyes). He prescribed an ointment that has a steroid and antibiotic, instead of using the drops we were currently using. And he said she should make a full recovery and have no lasting vision problems.


What a relief! Today, she is playing a little better, but has still be really sleepy. Here is a video of how she typically plays right now. She keeps her eyes closed as much as possible until late afternoon when the sun is going down.

Gracie 05-20-09 from wmmiller74 on Vimeo.

We are both so grateful the prayers and concern shown by all our family and friends. We couldn't have made it through this without all of you. Your prayers have made Gracie a walking, seeing miracle, and we thank God everyday. We rejoice that she is getting better and cannot thank each and every one of you enough.