update

jasper was examined today by three different eye doctors at children’s hospital. Another ultrasound was performed along with as much of an examination as jasper would allow.

The retina specialist is the doctor who will perform the bulk of the surgery on Tuesday and hence, we meet with him about what is to take place. First, an examination of the eye will take place to see how the cornea has healed and if the retina is still attached. The big fear is that scar tissue, which grows so fast in young toddlers, will detach the retina.

The fact that kids heal so fast is awesome for every part of their body…except for the eyes. And the doctors prepared us for the fact that the retina still may become detached and future surgeries will be needed to reattach it through lasers. It’s a bit of game as the scar tissue will try and battle back to remove it again.

Once the examination is done while he is under anesthesia, judgment calls will be made on the rest of the day. They may make revisions to the cornea on the stitches made the day it happened. If there is still a great deal of blood behind the eye, they will perform a vitrectomy which will attempt to clean out the blood from the retina. They may put in an artificial bucket object around the eye to aid the retina. In addition, silicon oil may be placed around the eye which would lubricate and help the retina from detaching in the future. This silicon fluid would need to be removed 6-9 months from now in another surgery.

The doctor explained he is a very conservative and he does not operate unless he feels the benefits outweigh the risks. The risks and complications of Tuesday’s surgery are as follows: he could begin bleeding in the eye, although he already has. He could develop a cataract, but this could be fairly easily fixed. He could get an infection, which can be easily preventable. The surgery can accidentally detach the retina. Jasper could develop high eye pressue, but this can be corrected with drops. He could acquire something called tysis, which would shrink the eye, dramatically hurting the chances of improved sight. This is rare and if happened, could be cosmetically fixed with a lens. Lastly, he could get something called Sympathetic Ophthalmia. This is also rare, however the worse case scenario. As I understand it, this symptom attacks the immune system and goes after the good eye. Hence, we would be taking a few steps backward.

The doc went on to explain that jasper’s life will not be affected at all with the loss of sight or limited vision from one eye. He described how the eyes are designed to be redundant and that his brain will very quickly adapt to just one…and be perfectly happy. He described many of his patients who have excelled in life, education, and sports. He also noted that living in the US, its better to be sighted in his left eye than right when driving. The only things jasper will be prevented from doing are: join the armed forces (sorry uncle ben), drive a commercial big rig, and fly commercial airlines. Otherwise, the world is still his to conquer. He can even get a small plane pilot license. He explained this not as an excuse to leave his eye alone, but to reassure us that jasper life will be virtually unimpeded by this accident. He said they are committed to do everything in the kitchen sink to get the eye back to normal.

Since jasper suffered an uveal prolapse, which means a great deal of the eye was hurt and suffered trama, the future prognosis is still unclear. This Tuesday is the biggest day for his young life. He is scheduled to be the second patient for the day around 10am.

The most amazing thing happened tonight. As we were putting him to bed after a bath, I went to place his eye patch on my face to try and make light of the fact he has to wear this thing. He was upset, yelled for me to take it off and place it back on his face. I remember so vividly seeing him come out of surgery with the protective cover on and saying to myself: the second jasper wakes up, he’s gonna rip that thing clear off his face. Quite the contrary. Mara thinks he find security and protection in it. Even seeing himself in the mirror for the first time after wards, he didn’t even question it.

Once more, thank you for all your prayer and thoughts. Mara and I feel them. Many people we’ve talked to or have had to break the news to, mention how calm and strong we seem. Im confident it is the prayers. Im also confident it’s the fact that jasper has not stopped a beat. As ive written before, he could care less he can only see out of one eye currently. He’s still the same exact jasper inside. His strength has given us all of ours.