News, Updates, Changes

Happy Saturday everyone! Wanted to bring you up to date on a couple things and make you aware of some changes that I'll be making to my blog over the next couple days (please bear with me if things look a tad goofy at times!)

First things first - my granddaughter's appointment with the pediatric ophthalmologist had a positive outcome. Her eyes are fine, but the dr did take quite a bit of time explaining the "white eye" phenomenon, the importance of doing simple screenings, and the fact that while he has a large number of similar photos referred to him, the majority of them do turn out to be nothing or nothing as serious as retinoblastoma. He did say that in Cheyenne's case, he would have requested a consultation based on the photo, because although he can usually tell whether or not it's something to worry about from just a photo, hers did raise suspicion.

For anyone who is curious as to what happens in the consultative visit, my granddaughter's pupils were dilated with drops (just like during a normal eye exam when they do the refractive error testing). The dr then examined both eyes with an ophthalmoscope and just to be sure that nothing is missed, performed a more extensive exam. After placing anesthestic eyedrops in Cheyenne's eyes, he placed an eyelid speculum gently under her eyelids and manipulated the eyeball with another instrument so that he could examine the retina thoroughly from all angles with a special lens designed precisely for such an examination. While my granddaughter fussed a little bit (more from being woken up from her nap, I think), the exam lasted just a couple minutes and she was none the worse for the wear. And our concerns were put to rest.

So... YAY!!!! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and well wishes - positive energy pays off!

We also received good news on my brother's surgery. While it lasted a bit longer than they had expected (4.5 hours), it appears that the cancer had not spread from his prostate into any of the adjacent areas. They did resect a portion of a lymph node that they had felt was questionable just to be sure, but at this point, they feel they got it all. Nerves appeared to be intact and if there are no more complications (he did have to go back to the OR to have them reposition some drains that had slipped, allowing air to enter his abdomen and causing a significant amount of pain), he will be heading home from the hospital tomorrow!

As far as the blog changes go, I will be updating the format of the blog over the next couple days, adding an additional column and moving around a few things. I'm also hoping to add a list of links for tutorials. This is all in the hopes that I can make things a little easier to find and navigate by grouping them a bit better. I would love to hear your suggestions on how I can improve my blog and if there is anything I can add that you would love to see, please let me know. I'll be happy to consider it!

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend. I'll continue the spotlight feature and Today is... feature during the changes, but I won't be doing another main article post until probably Tuesday! See you then!