4th Surgery in 4 Years

January 13, 2012 - Joshua had eye surgery to repair a detached retina and 4 tears in the in his left eye lining.

The damage resulted from a blow to the eye with a 2 inch hard rubber bouncy ball, a little over a month ago. Josh had been playing with the boys. They were in the garage, which was dark, and Josh would jump out to scare them, from the lit hallway. When he jumped out, Kaden threw the bouncy ball directly at him, as hard as he could. It happened to land directly in Josh's left eye. He had some vision problems at first, but thought they were progressively subsiding. Until recently, when he completely lost the vision in that eye and everything went dark.

On Sunday, Joshua and I fasted and prayed to know what we should do. Josh had a prompting that we should contact the doctor. We called the Casey Eye Institute. When Josh went for his appointment, on Thursday, they sent him up to OHSU's emergency department to be seen and prepped for surgery. They told him he had a detached retina and at least 2 tears. Since he had eaten earlier in the afternoon, they scheduled the surgery for Friday morning. We asked some friends to come over and administer a blessing to Josh, prior to the surgery. The blessing stated that the surgery would go well and the doctor's hand would be guided.

The surgery lasted about an hour and a half, and went very well. They were able to drain the gel in his eye, laser the tears, and get the retina back into place. They put a gas bubble in his eye to keep everything in place during the healing process. Since it went well, they did not have to put a buckle in place to hold the eye together, which would have been there permanently and would have caused Josh an additional amount of pain. --They say it could be up to 6 weeks before his previous vision is restored.

When Josh was 4 years old, he was hit in the left eye by a neighbor boy who threw a sharp piece of plastic. As a result of that trauma, Josh's lens had to be removed and he has remained partially blind in that eye. However, he did have blurred vision and peripheral vision. ---The doctors say, that in 3 months when the eye has healed from this recent surgery, they can discuss possibly attaching a cadaver lens to hopefully improve his vision in that eye. We're looking forward to that possibility! Until then, Josh has to spend the next 2 weeks taking things easy, with no heavy lifting and no bending over.

Although this trauma and surgery did not come at an ideal time, we know that our Heavenly Father answers prayers. We were blessed that Mom had reason to be back from out-of-town early, to be able to watch the boys for us. Josh was blessed that the surgery went well and they didn't have to use the buckle. And it's a blessing to know that he may have the possibility of improved vision. We are truly blessed!