Mason's "Bad Eye" Part 2

For a few weeks following the accident my life drastically changed. Mason had an eye appointment almost daily, He was put on 3 different eye drop medications that need to be administered 2-4 times a day. Do the math. He needed eye drops placed 6-8 times a day. This was no easy feat either. Because his left eye was swollen shut for a few days, this made the eye drops were a 2 person job. One person needed to pry his eye open, and the other quickly drop the medication in. Mason was extremely tolerant of this process and only whined occasionally. Per Doctors orders he was put on extreme movement restrictions. No running, jumping, bouncing... etc. At this point we weren't sure how much damage had actually been done. If he had a retinal tear or detachment jumping and bouncing could potentially make it worse. Those first 2 weeks were exhausting. I stressed over any movement at all from Mason! You try telling a 7 year old NOT to be 7. BLAH!

The very first morning (post accident) Mason refused to open even his good eye. I have learned a lot about eyes lately and apparently your eyes are "wired" to work together. If 1 of your eyes open the other closed eye will still contract it's pupil. So, for Mason this caused pain in his injured eye. He chose to just kept both eyes shut to avoid this pain. I tried everything I could to entice him to open his right eye, finally resorting to movie suggestions (even though he is injured I HATE the TV just being on. To me it's just NOISE and I don't like it.) He seemed excited at this prospect so he immediately chose a Scooby Doo. I remember thinking "oh cute. he still likes the little cartoon movies." WRONG! As I watched him "watch" the movie I noticed he STILL wasn't opening that eye but commenting and laughing at the movie. When I brought this to his attention he simply stated "I don't need to watch it. I have this movie memorized." LOL Funny kid.

Mason had lots of concerned visitors that first day. Including his primary teachers bringing him a card and a conference packet to enjoy watching conference the following Sunday. This is the FIRST time I noticed Mason get a little emotional after they left because he couldn't see the papers they brought him. He was so excited as I sat and explained what the papers said and how he could use the conference packet. He didn't cry, just got choked up a little and said "but I can't see them!" That's a really hard thing to watch your child experience "helplessness".

Later that evening quite a few family members came to check up on Mason including my Dad. We thought at this point Mason was asleep on the bean bag so we were quietly talking and Grandpa Faler said "He looks worse today then he did yesterday." to which Mason promptly responded "I can hear you!" LOL It was really funny.

Wednesday, (day 4) was the worst day for me. I think reality set in. He had been home from school all week and we were running a few errands. (This was the first day we didn't have any appointments) I remember where we were. Walking out of Wal Mart and Mason declared "Mom! I can open my eye!" I ran to him and was so excited the swelling had gone down enough that he could barely open his eye. I excitedly asked him "Can you see out of it?!?!" When he replied "No" my heart sank. The rest of the day is a blur. I don't know what I expected. I think I thought that miraculously he would see again and all would be as it was before. Lots of tears shed that day, guilty feelings crept back in. I wondered how different his life would be. "Would he be able to drive? Could he even play sports again?..." Ridiculous questions but valid concerns. Mason however was fine, completely unfazed by it. He was bouncing off walls and acting his usual upbeat self. Which only stressed me out MORE!!!

Mason has had several doctor appointments over the past few weeks. As always he is very well behaved for the Dr. and asks lots of questions. I REALLY like the Retinal specialist, Dr. Kwong. He is very informative and nice. He gave us his personal cell phone number at one point, I could tell he genuinely cared about Mason.

This particular appointment Dr. Kwong printed off the ultrasound pictures of Mason's eye and while explaining them to Ron and I, Mason speaks up from behind "Can I see?" Of course Dr. Kwong proceeded to show and explain to Mason what was going on in his eye.

I can't get over how high this kids pain tolerance is. Ron and I have more than once commented on how little Mason gets sick. The more we thought about it the more we realized he was probably sick more than we realized, he just never ACTED sick. This kid is go go go! For the most part the first couple days after the accident were fairly easy to keep Mason still. He was tired and I'm sure in pain, even though he NEVER asked for pain relief meds and would ALWAYS respond "Good" when you asked him how he was feeling. Almost everyone would ask "Does it hurt?" and Mason would ALWAYS reply with a smile "No." The only complaint he ever makes is his sensitivity to light. His eyes are extremely sensitive to light (mostly because of the dilating drops medicine) and especially first thing in the morning. We bought him some cool shades to help with this problem. He wears them EVERYWHERE! (Even to his choir concert at school and his Piano recital!)

The iris in his injured eye was torn during the accident. This is a drawing Dr.Underdaul (the Pediatric Eye Specialist) drew for us in the hospital. This can be fixed with surgery.

You can see his miss-shaped pupil and iris in this picture.