The Next EUA

Judah's eye is looking better but is still not opening all the way. He is scheduled to have another EUA (evaluation under anasthesia) on JULY 8th. The Dr. will check the pressures to see if the last surgeries have had their desired effect. The Dr. just emailed me to let me know that if the pressures are elevated during that EUA on the 8th, he will want to go ahead with another surgical procedure at that time so as to minimize the number of times Judah is under anasthesia. He did not provide further details but said we'd discuss it on the 8th when we come to have the EUA done.

Please pray for:

• complete healing of Judah's right eye before the EUA on July 8th
• wisdom for Lawrence and me re: another surgery if Judah's pressures are high upon evaluation
• perseverance in prayer to be anxious for nothing

Continue to thank God with us that:

• Judah continues to develop and grow at a normal pace
• we have good health insurance (expensive, but good) that covers all but a small co-pay for all these procedures, Dr's visits and prescriptions
• His Word takes greater hold in our hearts as we are forced to cast our burdens at His feet and trust Him with our son's care.

Judah's first eye surgery

Judah had eye surgery on May 20th. It was done to help control the pressures in his eyes so that glaucoma will not eventually take his vision. The two procedures performed are called a tribechulotomy and a tribechulectomy (not sure about the spelling..sorry!). He was under anasthesia for nearly three hours. Even though it took a full day until he was himself again, he did well coming out of anasthesia.

As a result of the surgery, his right eye (the one worked on) was swollen shut for about a week. The swelling has gone down significantly, and the eye itself looks free of infection, for which we are very grateful. However, he still isn't opening his eye completely. It's opened less than half way. We have been reassured several times by the doctor that this is within the realm of normal as far as recovery goes for this surgery, and that it should not affect his long term vision.

Nevertheless, we are finding ourselves anxious at times about his vision getting worse with the length of time that has gone by without him really using that eye. Before the surgery, this eye was found to be more near sighted and we had been patching the other "good" eye for an hour a day to try to strengthen the "bad" eye.

Please pray:

• Judah would open his right eye soon
• Judah's vision would not be adversely affected by this or subsequent surgeries he may need
• Lawrence and I would be anxious for nothing (Phil 4:6) but trust God, who in all things works for our good (Rom. 8:28)
• Lawrence and I would have wisdom and grace to shepherd Judah and Tucker's heart even at this young age to be confident in God's goodness and mercy to them no matter what the outcome of Judah's lot.

Thank the Lord with us:

• Judah has continued to be seizure free (seizures & strokes are an expected norm. for many with Sturge Weber)
• Judah does well under anasthesia (he will need to be "under" for all his eye exams for a while)
• Judah is managing well with the use of just one eye!
• The eye that is healing has shown no signs of infection.
  

Purpose for this Blog

This blog has been established to keep those interested abreast to Judah's medical condition. I will include dates of doctor's visits (feel free to call about babysitting Tucker or joining Judah and me at Hopkins), prayer requests, and praises. Eventually, I would like to establish a web page for Judah, including pictures and links to other sites, but this is what I have to work with right now.
I will be sure to let you know when/if a more official web page ever gets set up.

Please visit the sites listed to the right for more information about Sturge Weber and Port Wine Stains. Also, feel free to email or call us any time if you have any questions this site doesn't cover or if you just want to chat. We love you all and are so amazed that God cares for us so much to provide such generous, loving people like you! Thank you!!