faq

mara + i thought a good post would be to list the questions we commonly get asked or sometimes people are even afraid to ask.

what actually happened? on news year morning, jasper was swinging an empty christmas wrapping tube like a baseball bat. he lost his balance, and fell into a closet door metal hinge.

will he be able to see out of the eye? it's too early to know for certain. mara + i stopped asking that question to the docs abit ago because there are still many hurtles jasper has to jump before we know for certain. so far, the procedures to regain as much as we can have all been successful. the laceration was right down the center, from top to bottom, in the middle of the field of vision. hence, the scar is currently blocking the view. the last step, once the surgeries are complete, will be rehabilitating the eye by patching the good one (forcing him to strengthen the bum one). the fear at the moment, is that since he is so young, the brain is still developing the neurons and connections from the brain to the eye. since he is not seeing anything from the eye currently, the brain has already begun to shout down messages to the eye and allow his good one to dominate. this is commonly referred to as a "lazy eye". the rehabilitation might prove to be the hardest, yet most important factor in getting him to see from the eye.

can he see out of the eye now? no. we've been told it might be months before he will regain any sight- even light and dark. however, its still a bit uncertain.

in earlier posts, you mentioned cataracts? yep, this is not such a concern anymore because the doctors are fairly confident jasper lost his lens in the accident. since some of the inner fluid leaked out from the laceration, the lens was punctured and most likely was lost entirely. cataracts deal with the lens. jasper will most likely be outfitted with a contact lens to make up for this.

what is a retina tear again? basically, the way i understand it is that the eye is like a camera. you've got the front part thats the lens/aperature and the retina in the back is the film. the nerves hook into the retina which then delivers the signals to the brain. in jasper's case, trama to the eye which has resulted in scar tissue, is the cause of a possible tear or detachment. take a peek here to see a diagram.

when will jasper start wearing glasses? most likely in a few weeks after the next surgery to remove the stitches. the main function of the glasses will be to protect the good eye in case of another accident. we found this site which shows what glasses are available.

will jasper wear a pair that looks like his dad so they can look even more like each other? yep.

are the doctors good? yes, we feel we are in very good hands at children's hospital's eye vision center. the retina specialist who operated last week and we saw today is Dr. Lee. mara + i cant say enough great things about him. the cornea specialist who we saw first when we flew back was Dr. Song, who will take over phase 2, the cornea repair. Dr. Song is the one who called us in Puerto Rico and even gave us his cell to call back with anymore questions.

does jasper open the bad eye? not really. the most he has ever opened it is about 20-30%. this is normal according to the doctors.

is he in any pain? up until the last week, his eye only hurt when we hold him down to place eye drops. the past week he's been trying to itch the eye and becomes a bit hysterical when he can't. the doc is not concerned and believes this is part of the healing process.

is he on any medicine? yep, 4 times a day we need to place an antibiotic ointment in his eye. needless to say, he doesn't enjoy this and it isnt easy for us to do. we will most likely have to place this ointment for another month or so. we also place drops which aid the pupil.

is there anything we can do to help? mara + i feel so blessed to have the friends and family we do. at the moment, we are asking for prayers for his recovery, strength, and patience.

so i hope these answer everyone's questions. but if not, dont hesitate to ask in the comments.