Follow-up appointment today

Gracie is saying good night.

This morning Gracie went to see Dr. O  (our pediatric ophthalmologist near our home). She had an 8AM appointment. Gracie was a real delight and cheerful for most of the visit. She was mad that I did not let her stay in the waiting room to finish her TV show but otherwise cheerful. Around her eye is still slightly swollen and the white in her eye is a bit red in color, almost like a bruise.

Dr. O was pleased with how Gracie looked. Her acuity is still fine and Dr. O even mentioned that the vitriol seeds appear smaller then they have in the past! That is great news. Dr. O helped me understand a bit more about how the carboplatin injections worked. I explained before that the injections went just under the outside layer of the eye so that the drug was actually in the eye. However the conjunctiva is a layer that actually goes over the front of the eye but does not go all the way around the eye. So there was an incision in the conjunctiva and then a blunt needle was used to inject the carboplatin directly behind the eye (in the back of the eye socket if you will). There is a space for about 3mL of fluid back there and they injected 2mL of carboplatin. So the bulging eye was not really the eye itself swelling up but rather the conjunctiva being pushed out from its normal position and looking somewhat inflated. The eye still looked terrible and there was lots of pain from everything being pushed out but it was not exactly the eye that was swollen.

Maybe everyone did not want to know all that but that is what I found out today!

Gracie was quite tired today. Her blood counts are likely quite low. Hopefully she will not get sick as she did after the first round of chemo. So far she has been happy and healthy. For that we are truly grateful.