Glasses?

This Friday, March 3rd, Judah will go to have his eyes checked once again. This time, the main focus will be to see if he needs glasses. The possibility of glasses has been brought up in the past, but Judah's opthamologist wanted to wait until his glaucoma was a bit more under control. Since his last EUA showed that his pressures are acceptable, she will go ahead and see what the surgeries and patching have done to his vision.

Her expectation is that Judah's vision will have improved as an indirect result of the surgeries. However, Judah's right eye has always been more nearsighted than his left. If this remains the case, and the discrepancy is vast enough, she will prescribe glasses. If he's equally nearsighted in both eyes, she will give him more time to develop and consider glasses further down the road.

My preference would be for Judah to not need glasses. However, if he needs them, I'm grateful he will be able to have them at such a young age, hopefully to adjust more quickly to them and also to enjoy better sight, too!

Please pray that:

• Judah will cooperate with the exam, and Dr. Abrams, his opthamologist, will acquire an accurate prescription for both of Judah's eyes.
• Judah will not need glasses.
• Judah and Tucker are both sick with a cold; pray they'll heal quickly.

I'll let you know how things go next week.

Most Recent Laser Treatment

Judah had his laser treatment last Friday on his face. It turned out to be more stressful than usual. Thinking it would be more comforting to Judah and Tucker to be together, I foolishly decided to let Tucker tag along with us, accompanied by my friend, Kate. Tucker seems to be displaying a strange phobia of elevators, and at Hopkins, we had to take an elevator at least three times. Our appointment was pushed back an hour, and the waiting room crawled with people, so much so that we hung out in the hallway outside the office.

By the time I reached the treatment room with Judah, I broke down and began to cry. I was tempted to just take Judah home at that point, but knew that would be unfair to him. All I could do was pray for God's help to compose myself as I sensed Judah would feed off of my disquieted spirit. Finally, after I just couldn't seem to pull it together, I said in my spirit, "we rest on Your Faithfulness now, God", and I was reminded of the scripture that says, 'when we are faithless, He is faithful'.

We got through another treatment, with three adults holding Judah in place for the doctor. Even so, there were a few spots the doctor overlapped with the laser due to Judah's wiggling. Judah's face is covered with purple, round bruises on one side of his face predominately and blisters surrounding his nose and mouth mostly. The bruising and blistering is a common result immediately after treatment, and it will go away after about a week or so. Until then, we tend to keep Judah from the public eye, as who knows what sort of comments/stares/assumptions folks might make upon looking at him.

Nevertheless, my little man's smile shines through his bruises and blisters. He is a trooper! I am planning to take Judah and Tucker to our church's bible study tomorrow morning, and I'm praying that the little friends at church will just learn to see Judah and not Judah's red face. I am so grateful that Judah will have the church to grow up in and through which to experience God's love and acceptance.

Pray that Judah's blisters will heal without infection or scarring and that the bruising will go away quickly as well. There are no dr's appointments this week. Yippee! I'll post again next Monday regarding next week's appointment. Thanks for 'staying tuned' and for your faithful praying.

Judah's EUA Results and This Week's Events

As my thoughts turn toward love and the expressions of love we all try to display for others this time of year, I believe faithful prayer on another's behalf has got to rank high on the "most selfless expressions of love" list. So, know that we consider your prayers on our behalf a heart felt expression of love for us, and we are grateful for you!

Though Judah's procedure was delayed quite a while on Friday, he was not difficult to manage by God's grace. We took our friend, De, with us, and she is always a delight to have along for days such as Friday. She keeps a positive, God-centered perspective in all things, has a head full of wisdom that she readily shares and just overall puts a smile on our faces. She is a gem of a friend!

One ongoing concern or preference of mine for these EUA's has been that Judah receive the anesthetic through the gas mask vs. a shot. There has always been a "discussion" prior to the EUA as Judah's doctor prefers (his preference backed up by his study's findings) to use the shot. On Friday, I didn't feel I had it in me to get over what I call the "intimidation factor" of talking through this with the doctors again, so I prayed that God would give me grace and strength.

When the doctor came to speak with us about the procedure, he simply said, "...and we'll use the gas since I know you prefer that and we've already discussed that...". I just said a quiet, "thank you" to God but was ever aware of His presence with us, and of Him fighting the "battles" I didn't have strength to fight for Judah that day.

Judah went under and was evaluated, his pressures found to be within the realm of normal for him. The doctor was satisfied with the numbers enough to not do any surgery that day. However, he does want Judah to begin using an eye drop in his left eye to hopefully bring the pressures down further.

Judah recovered well from anesthesia, and we were home quickly without any complications. Thank you, Lord!!

This week, Judah will have a laser treatment on his face. Gratefully, my friend, Kate, is going to be available to help me apply the numbing cream ahead of time and then watch Tucker at home while I take Judah to Hopkins.

Please pray that:

• Judah will cooperate for the application of his numbing cream.
• God will give me grace and strength for yet another, rather traumatic, treatment.
• I will shepherd my sons' hearts faithfully, to impress upon them that our God is good in all things.
• the dermatologist and his new assistant will effectively treat Judah's face on Friday.
• Judah will not feel pain from the treatment and will recover well with less bruising/blistering than he has had in the past.

Thank God with us that:

• Judah was able to get the gas vs. the shot of anesthetic.
• Judah did not need eye surgery this time around.
• He faithfully provides good friends to surround us and help us with Judah's dr's visits.

Eating Wars and Judah's EUA

I'm sorry for the delay. I didn't get to post yesterday because our day was full. It included the boys' 18 month check up with their pediatrician. We walked through the door to where the boys get weighed and measured, and they began to scream in stereo. It served to set off a couple of the other kids in the office, too. I guess the boys are just "at that age".

They're also "at that age" when food becomes an issue. I discussed the boys' eating habits with their pediatrician (which excludes any meat or vegetables), and she gave me a plan of attack. I know I'm not the first mom to have food wars with her children, but the stress is nevertheless real and present in my world today.

Otherwise, the boys looked 'normal'. Judah's head circumference was recorded a centimeter more than what his neurologist and I measured recently, but I think that was due more to human error than that his head has actually grown. I mentioned it to Judah's neurologist and am waiting to hear back from her, but I am not concerned.

Judah has a scheduled EUA (evaluation under anesthesia) this Friday, Feb. 10th, as a follow up from his eye surgery in December. As usual, if Judah's eye pressures are elevated, the doctor will determine whether or not to perform yet another surgery. If his eye pressures are down sufficiently, Judah will be sent home after he wakes up from anesthesia.

One snag is that the boys have both been fighting a head cold. Judah has gone under anesthesia before with a cold; it just complicates matters, and sometimes has meant a "trache" tube put down his throat during the procedure to keep his airways open. That's never fun to recover from.

Please pray that:

• God will give me grace to serve my sons and remain patient with them as they learn to gratefully eat their meat and vegetables.
• the boys will become better eaters.
• Judah will fare well with anesthesia on Friday and not be sick for the procedure.
• we'll be able to use the gas mask vs. a shot for the anesthetic.
• Judah will not need another eye surgery.
• We will make it to and from Johns Hopkins safely (the appointment is at 6 a.m.).
• Tucker will be pleasant for his sitter.
• as always, Lawrence and I will be wisely shepherding our sons' hearts through these circumstances to the glory and praise of God.

Thanks for your faithful prayers!