Of carrots and catching balls...

The new contact lens in my left eye seems to be working really well. My strabismus is a bit better (that's the fancy word for 'squint') because my left eye is not having to work so very hard to see. A lot of the time my eyes are quite straight 'cause now I'm seeing almost equally with both eyes. That means that hopefully I won't have to have another operation when I'm one years old. But I'm not going to worry about that now anyway; I'm just taking things one day at a time, and enjoying things like playing with my blue prickly ball and eating mashed carrots for supper.

'You light a lamp for me. The Lord, my God, lights up my darkness.' - Psalm 18:28

Money for dogs

Some of Mom’s St Alban’s boys raised money at a poetry evening and they’ve asked Mom to donate it to the Guide-Dog Association of South Africa. It’s almost enough to buy someone who can’t see a dog like Lola! How cool is that?

I saw Uncle Jacobus again yesterday for a quick check-up and he’s happy with my eyes. Lord willing, I’ll only need to go for another EUA in February. The new contact lens for my left eye should be arriving today and I’m so excited ‘cause I think it’ll make a big difference. I’m really grateful that God made my Dad so clever with eyes.

A spot of good news...!

Cam's EUA went well this morning - praise God.

The pressure in both his eyes has dropped, from 19 to 10! Wonderful, wonderful news... We are so relieved. His pupils dilated beautifully; Jacobus took the stitches out of his corneas; Murray was able to refract both his eyes and got excellent measurements. The right eye's prescription has been accurate all along, but we weren't able to get an accurate prescription for his left eye because that pupil couldn't dilate. But the op on his left eye three weeks ago was a success and today Murray could finally refract effectively. His right eye is a +39 and his left eye is a +32. So now, DV, with the correct contact lens on his left eye, his right eye shouldn't 'take over' and his binocular vision should improve.

Cam is fast asleep again... Today's anaesthetic was really light so it wore off quite quickly and he's been full of smiles. :)

We'll keep you posted!

EUA tomorrow

My EUA is tomorrow, not on Wednesday! So please pray for me, if you read this before 7h30 tomorrow morning...! Pray especially that Dad will be able to get an accurate prescription for my left contact lens, and that Uncle Jacobus will have good news for us when he measures the pressure in my eyes and all that.

Granny says that Helen Keller said that blindness separates you from things but not from people. I think that's so cool, 'cause I really like people. But I'm also discovering all sorts of things lately. Like the other day while Mom was marking exams I was discovering spoons! And I also discovered that my Christmas hat is too small (I gave it to my friend Ben) and that Dad's Christmas hat is too big.

Me and my cousins

On Friday mornings I go to Aunty Coral's house. These are pictures of me and my cousins, Meagan and Craig.

The one with us on the mirror was taken today, at our house. This week for the first time I saw something in a mirror! This is me practising kind-of-nearly-crawling on Mom's mirror.

Left eye

Since the last operation on Cam's left eye (5 November), his right eye has started to 'take over', which means his binocular vision (seeing with both eyes equally) is worsening. We are patching his eyes everyday to get each eye working hard, but please do pray. He goes in for another EUA next Wednesday (26 November). Now that his left pupil can dilate again, Murray will hopefully be able to get a more accurate contact lens prescription for that eye, and that should help significantly.

2 Corinthians 4: 7-10

The whole tooth and nothing but the tooth

Hey, got my first tooth this week! How cool is that?

The (not very good) photos are of me and Lola playing by the Christmas tree yesterday. (It's really early to have put up the Christmas tree, but Mom and Dad figured I would like the lights, which I do! And anyway, it's never too early to be reminded that Jesus came.) Lola played with me for ages and ages. She lets me tug her all over and she doesn't mind. She just licks me and puts her paws all over me really gently.

Going for a check-up at the doc this afternoon.

Say no to Lowe

Dad and Uncle Jacobus checked out Mom's eyes yesterday. There are no opacities in her lenses, which means it is highly unlikely that I have the Lowe Syndrome thing that they were worried about. Yay! Mom's pupils had to be dilated for them to check her eyes and apparently her eyes looked really weird for a long time afterwards. Dad said she should slow down on the weed, but I think he was just kidding 'cause Mom doesn't smoke weed.

And Uncle Jacobus says my left eye is looking fine after Wednesday's operation. I just have to keep going for check-ups and get drops in my eye every two hours.

I'm feeling better!

Fifth anaesthetic – third operation

As usual, there was some good news and some bad news.

The pressure in my eyes has risen since my EUA two weeks ago, which is not a good thing. It means that I might be getting glaucoma. More bad news is that the vitreous in my left eye was causing the membrane across my pupil, preventing the pupil from dilating. Uncle Jacobus had to suck out some more of the vitreous fluid, and push it back into place.

The good news is that he didn’t have to touch my iris – no scraping away of fibrosis necessary. My pupil is now nice and round and centred over my retina. Hopefully it will be able to dilate properly. We’ll just have to watch those pressures and pray like mad…

I’ve got to have three different drops in my left eye again, every two hours, for the next week. I have two tiny stitches on my cornea so I won’t be able to wear a contact lens on my left eye for a week or so because my eye will be quite scratchy. The stitches will come out in two weeks’ time when I go for another EUA.

Uncle Jacobus mentioned something today called Lowe Syndrome. If that's what I've got, it has something to do with Mom's X-chromosome. He wants to check Mom's eyes 'cause even though there's nothing wrong with her eyes he'll be able to see if she's carrying this very, very rare thing, which might have caused my cataracts and microphthalmia. I don't understand any of this but it's making Mom sad. You can check out this scary link and pray that this is NOT what I've got...

http://www.lowesyndrome.org/LoweSyndrome/whatIsLS.html

I’m going to have a nice long sleep now. I’m going to Oumie’s funeral later today.

Love Cameron

Colour

The photos are of me learning my colours with Granny, and eating a naartjie, and paddling with Mom. I have to get each eye patched for a couple of hours every day. The eye that isn't patch has to work harder, then, and it gets stronger.

Wednesday 5 November is my next operation - please keep praying for me! If it's a success my left pupil will be able to dilate again and that will get more light into my eye and onto my retina.

Uncle Jacobus (Dr Pauw) phoned Dad yesterday. He spoke about me at this big congress where there were other docotors from all over the world, 'cause he's never had to operate on eyes as bad as mine before. All the other doctors were very impressed with Uncle Jacobus and said that he's done the best thing for my eyes.

My Oumie (Mom's Granny) went home to be with Jesus today. I only met her a few times, but I'll see her again in heaven.