Corneal Ulcer

  Love this picture.  Kai was watching Zuri as she played with his foot.  So cute.

Conjunctivitis--that is what they said at the hospital on Friday when Kai was released.  Corneal ulcer is what the ophthalmologist said on Monday.  Good thing we didn't wait until Tuesday to get it checked out.  A single day could be the difference between minimal scarring and losing the eye because of how fast eye infections develop.  Over the weekend we were becoming increasingly worried about Kai's eye.  The white mucous film would not go away and it was covering his entire pupil and iris.  Sunday night the nurse did some research and found that it was most likely an ulcer, so first thing Monday morning we called and they originally told us to go to the emergency room.  It was that serious.  They were able to get us into Primary Children's Riverton clinic first thing, so we didn't have to make the drive all the way up to Salt Lake (and to the ER), which was a blessing.

The Dr took one look at Kai's eye and started to paint a pretty grim picture.  He said at worst Kai would lose the eye; at best he would have scarring and bent vision.  He said that there is the real possibility of having to have multiple surgeries and tissue grafts, but children so young usually reject the graft anyway so it may not do much good.  He did an ultrasound of Kai's eye and found that the back of the eye looked fine, no infection or leaking that he could see.  He was encouraged by that fact and gave us some drops to put in Kai's eye every hour and we set an appointment to see him the next day.

Tuesday was quite the busy day for us.  We had two appointments at Primary Childrens already, spaced several hours apart.  Luckily, the ophthalmologist was understanding and has a clinic in Orem.  He said to just come after our appointments and Kai would be the last patient he sees that day.   The two appointments we had were with neurosurgery for Kai's head and spine. 

Dr. S looked at Kai's head and was a little concerned that his fontanelles have closed so early, and also that his hydrocephalus hasn't been followed by anyone since birth.  He wanted to consult with Dr. W after he saw Kai later that day to see if Dr. W thought a CT scan would be warranted.  The doctors work in the same department, but for some reason we couldn't get just one doctor to look at Kai--or two doctors for the same appointment.  I had to fight just to get the appointments on the same day.  Dr. S also talked about surgery on Kai's face to bring his mid-face out more.  He said that that would be more when he was six or seven though.  As for his head shape, very little was mentioned other than wanting that CT scan done.

After our first appointment we went down to the cafeteria for lunch.  --It is pretty sad that we arrived for the appointment by ten, and it was twelve-thirty when we got out; especially considering we saw the doctor for less than ten minutes.  We ate and changed out Kai's oxygen tank and decided to head back to the clinic to see if we register early for the second appointment, if we might be able to get in sooner than our two o'clock designation.  Right when we were about to register/sign in, Kai's ventilator started alarming that it had low power.  We had a car charger but didn't bring the power cord for inside.  We asked them if we could borrow a cord from the hospitals units (since we knew they have the same ventilator as we do).  They wouldn't let us (they gave some lame excuse that didn't really make sense), but they did get Dr. W from another appointment and he saw us right away.  The appointment was rushed but the gist was that Dr. W wanted to do an MRI on Kai's spine to check things out.  He seemed more concerned than Dr. S about Jeremy, and would have scheduled the MRI and CT right away but because of the low battery on the ventilator, we set the date for early February (next available opening).  He also said that Kai seems to have some hyper-reflexivity, but thought it was due more to brain function.  He said that Kai's lower spine doesn't seem to be giving him any problems, so that is a plus.

We drove back to Orem for the next appointment with Dr. L, the ophthalmologist.  He was surprised (both good and bad) that Kai's eye had changed so much in just 24 hours.  Kai's eye had become more red and the mucous more of a yellow color instead of white.  He said the change could be a good thing because it means the eye is trying to heal itself.  Also visible was a little bit of the blue iris around the edge of the mucous film.  He tested the pressure of the eye and was a little concerned that it was slightly soft (an indication of leaking).  He thoroughly checked the eye and found no leak, which is reassuring.  He also checked Kai's right eye (his good eye) and pronounced that the right eye is just fine and healthy.  He debated whether to take Kai into surgery and try to remove the mucous film, but wanted to wait a few more days to see what the eye would do on its own.  Our next appointment is on Friday.  Until then we are continuing the drops every hour and praying for the best.

Poor Kai just can't seem to get a break!  We finally got his bum healed (the butt cream from Germany worked better than the stuff they used at the hospital), and now we have his eye.  Hopefully we took him in early enough that his eye can be saved.  Kai's eyes were one of the few things about him that we haven't been concerned about because they have been nice and healthy.  We will know more on Friday.