This is the e-mail that I sent out the night of June 17 to our family. Some of you may know about this and to some it may be news. I share this with you to educate you. Brad and I had a hard time deciding whether to post this on the blog or not, but this trial will be with us, and especially Tate, for the rest of our lives.
EMAIL June 17th
We have had an eventful day to say the least. Some of you may or may not know that we have noticed that Tate has had a lazy eye. We took him to a pediatric ophthalmologist today and we found out that his retina is totally detached in his left eye. The main concern of the doctor was that this was due to a tumor. We were then sent to OHSU Hospital (Casey Eye Institute) to see more doctors and possibly have MRI or CT scan done. They went ahead and did two different kinds of ultrasounds on his eyes. One with his eye open and one with his eye closed (all while he was awake.) Tate was amazing all day. The doctor that we met with narrowed down what Tate might have into three different options.
#1 He only has the detached retina (probably due to some sort of trauma) and will never have vision in that eye.
#2 Coats Disease which has to do with fatty tissues and calcium deposits in the eye.
#3 Retinoblastoma. This would be the worst case scenario. This is a chromosome defect where your body does not suppress tumor growth. If he has this type of cancer they would treat it very aggressively so that it would not spread. Also, this he would live with the rest of his life having to deal with tumors.
THE NEXT DAY June 18th
The doctors have ruled out Retinoblastoma. I can't tell you the relief that we felt that our four-year-old would not be leaving us prematurly or have to deal with chemo and tumors the rest of his life. We feel so blessed and thank everyone who prayed and fasted for our Taterbug.
THE PLAN OF ACTION
Tate was to go under anesthesia and have an extensive exam of his eyes. This was to be done by Dr. Stout who is the pediatric specialist there. This was to be done on July 1.
Tate thought it would be cute to pose for the camera. You might ask how they choose teams...well, we had a parent meeting where we could sign up for one of four teams. They had two girl coaches and two guy coaches. I thought Tate would respond better to a guy, so then the choice was the red shirt or the green shirt. I think Tate looks better in red and that's how we did it!
Tate up to bat...
Tate running like the wind...
And we are pooped!
Tate was hilarious. He is kind of a class clown. They were practicing running around some cones (bases) and Tate thought it would be funny to kick over every single cone. Then when he felt tired during the game, he would just sit down.
