A Minor Scare

Since Charlie has been born, Donna and I have found out that not everything happens as they show it in the movies or how you read in the books or hear from friends. Well, on Halloween we took some pictures of the girls in their cute costumes and while looking over the pictures that night, Donna noticed a little cloudiness in Charlie's left eye. While I thought nothing of it, she went back and looked at some other pictures and the "shadow" was there again. Apparently, Donna had heard of this before as she became concerned and explained to me that it can be something very serious and that she needed to go to the eye doctor as soon as possible. After listening to Donna's concerns and what's she's read and seen on the internet, I fully supported her idea to take Charlie to the pediatric eye doctor. So, this morning off they went at 7:15 to get her eyes checked. I am very happy to say that after a full examination, there are no tumors in her eye. BUT, Charlie does have an astigmatism and will have to wear glasses full time. Yes, she inherited her Mom and Dad's terrible eyes, something we had hoped maybe, just maybe she got lucky and we didn't pass that down to her. So she will be getting glasses as the doctor said that if she doesn't wear them her eyes could get much worse and lead to other vision issues.

So from this minor scare, I again learned more about being a parent. I learned how much I already worry about my little girl and just the thought of anything happening to her makes my heart ache. There was a pit in my stomach for the the last few days thinking that something could be wrong with Charlie. I realized that IF anything happens to her, how fast I will willingly trade places with her if I could so she doesn't endure any pain or unhappiness. Seeing her smile has become one of the best parts of my day and I will do anything to keep it that way.....except buy her a pony!

I also have to say that I learned yet again, how parenting really is a team effort. I never would have thought anything of the "shadow" that Donna saw in the pictures. I just chalked it up to our cheap camera and nothing more. I joke with Donna all the time but it really is true how lucky I am and they are to have a Mom that is so in tune with them.

So on with my day I go and happier now that everyone seems happy in the house again. I will call it a blessing that it's just glasses knowing that it could have been much worse. Again, something else that reminded me of how lucky I am to have such a wonderful family.

(And yes, this is a bit sappy but that is what daughters can do to a man........so in other news, how about those Tampa Bay Buccaneers!!!......Better?)

Additional info added by Donna...Major Scare!
So, I just wanted to add a little bit more info to what Owen posted to give more reason why I took Charlie into the doc.  Like he said, I noticed some glare/shadow in Charlie's left eye.  The first picture I noticed it in was taken about two weeks ago but I only looked at it on the camera so I just thought it was a weird glare.  When I put that picture in addition to other pictures from Halloween on my computer and looked at them on a bigger screen, something didn't sit well with me.  Tucked in the back of my brain I remembered something about a certain cancer being detected by parents after looking at pics of their kids.  Well, Detective Donna was on the case and it didn't take long to confirm the info that I remembered.  There is a very serious cancer, retinoblasoma, that shows up in young children.  Retinoblastoma is a rapidly developing cancer that develops in the cells of the retina, the light-detecting tissue of the eye.  I found some pictures of other kids that have been diagnosed with this disease so see if it was similar to what I was seeing in Charlie's pics.  Here are the two pics of Charlie and a pic that I found on line of a confirmed case.

There have been other things that I've perceived as "wrong" with Charlie but I've never had this type of gut feeling that something just wasn't right.  I told Owen what I thought and he said to get it checked out.  Unfortunately, the doctor couldn't see her until today.  Longest wait ever...or so I thought.  Went in this morning and saw the doc.  When I showed her the pics I had of Charlie she said, "oh yeah, we need to check this out".  Oh shit!  I was hoping that she was going to call me crazy and send us home.  They had to dilate Charlie's eyes so the doc could get a better look.  We had to wait 30 mins for the dilation to be in full effect.  That was the longest wait ever.  All I could think of is that this doctor could change the course all of our lives within the next hour.  When we got back into the room, the doc looked into Charlie's eyes, then she looked at me and said that there are no tumors.  You have absolutely no idea how relieved I was.  I didn't really pay attention to what she said for the next couple mins b/c I was trying not to cry.  The reason that Charlie gets the glow/shadow in her eye is because she has amblyopia.  She will need glasses to correct the amblyopia and astigmatism in order for her eyes to develop normally.  Glasses?  No biggie!  And, don't let Owen fool you.  I'm pretty sure that if Charlie asks for a pony, he'll get her one!