Hannah, Nate & I were all due for eye exams and I had made
appts for the three of us at
LensCrafters - nothing special needed - just an exam and new glasses for, at the very least, Nate and myself.
Nate, now working nights, decided that he would take Hannah up on Wed afternoon so that we could go together on Saturday and be able to go without the kids (much easier to pick out new frames when not having to deal with restless kids....)
Now, the optometrist there, after looking at Hannah's eyes, diagnosed her with "
papilledema" and said that we should take her to see an ophthalmologist and that there might be a CT or MRI ordered.
Hmmmmm, sounds ominous. And, as much as I like the
internet - it can be a dangerous thing in supplying too much information.
Papilledema is inflammation of the optical nerve.
Papilledema secondary to "something" else. The #1 "something" else is a brain tumor. YIKES!!!
First thing Thursday I'm on the phone with ophthalmologist!! They got her in that afternoon. Dr. Miller was great and said after doing an exam that he thought that it was not the correct diagnosis. That there
was something there, but he wasn't convinced that it was
papiledema. He also said that her left eye looked fine, but her right eye was a little off. A most peoples optic nerves have a cup-like shape to them, Hannah's right one is flat. This could be normal, but it could be caused by something as well. He wanted to do the CT just to be safe sure and to give us peace of mind. (We wanted peace of mind!!!) The CT was
sched for 4:00 on Friday. But we felt much better upon leaving the office.
CT on Friday was rather uneventful and
maybe took 10 minutes for the actual test to be performed.
Now, as I work in a Dr's office, we have access to the films from the local imaging company's around, I was able to look for the report. There was nothing there on Saturday morning. Saturday evening, Hannah wanted to "see" her brain. So, we went to the office Saturday night to look at her brain (and see if the report was there!!!) Alas, there was no report, but there was a brain!! As we scrolled through the images, we noticed that there was a 17mm "dot" behind her right eye measured out by the radiologist. YIKES (again)!!!
No report on Sunday either....... just wait and try not to freak (damned near impossible!!)
Monday, Dr. Miller calls at like 8:30 in the morning and first thing says "Good news!! No tumor!! (
YAY!!!) What she does have is Optic Nerve Head
Drusen on both eyes. " He said it's kind of like "warts". Calcification's really. There is no treatment currently for this and most likely will not cause any problems. Possibly some "blind spots" in the future, but that's not 100% for sure. He wanted to see her in six months, and wanted to make sure that we/she knows what it is, as in the future, when she has eye exams, he said that any eye Dr worth a damn would be concerned and order a CT/MRI, and that would not be necessary.
Sorry it's so long, but really - how do you explain it all. Sorry we didn't tell everyone - but why share the worry when we don't know what to worry about - but now you know!! And we are a much
relieved household with just a few more greys!!! We are thankful and try not to cringe too much (
at least for a week) when the kids start fighting!!!
Love to you all!! (I will take pics of Hannah's brain with the cell and post them soon!!)
This one is a little further down, showing her the full size of her very LARGE brain!!
Now, this one is cool, because you can see her eyes.... and the very itsy, bitsy dot on the left (but right) eye is the one that scared us!!! But it's all good.