Back from testing

Friday Gabby and I went in to meet with ophthalmology, oncology, do blood work for endocrinology and have an MRI.  Her ophthalmology apointment went well and her vision has improved since after her surgery.  The doctor says she does not need glasses at this time and that if she did get a lense for her left eye it would need to be a progressive lense as her eye does not focus well close up but is fine further away.  He said that her optic nerves are no longer swollen and are looking much better.  Her left optic nerve is pale but seems to be working well.  A pale optic nerve is a sign of Optic nerve atrophy (ONA) which is degeneration of, or damage to, the optic nerve, a cluster of nerves which carry vision information from the eye to the brain. There are multiple causes of ONA but Gabby's was caused by her tumour.

The effects of ONA have a broad range dependent on the adequacy of visual messages sent from the eyes to the brain, from little or no visual impairment to near-total blindness. The condition may affect one or both eyes and can be halted by removal of the tumour. Tumour regrowth will determine if her ONA progresses but until regrowth is determined her eye sight should be stable.  This is great news as she has little visual impairment.

Her left pupil is still dilated more than her right and may just always be that way.  This was caused by the tumour compressing one of her nerves that lead to her eye.  This may be permanently damaged or it may still recover, only time will tell.

Once we were done at ophthalmology we headed up to oncology to meet with our oncology nurse and the child life specialist.  The idea was that they would insert her IV for the MRI and take blood.  They had difficulty finding Gabby's veins and finally got the blood they needed but as they were flushing it for the IV her vein blew.  This sounded very bad to Gabby and she was very concerned that she had "blown a vein" but it just meant that they would need to find another spot to place the IV and her blown vein would hurt for a few days but heal just fine. 

It took two hours to get Gabby's blood and place the IV.  Her veins just would not cooperate!  They finally placed the IV in her thumb which was very painful and by that time Gabby was very stressed and upset but she stayed very still and was very brave!

Once the IV was in place we headed to the MRI.  Gabby had a long day up to this point and soon fell asleep during the MRI! This really told me just how stressful and exhausting placing the IV was for her.  If you've ever had an MRI you know that it is very noisy!  They gave me earplugs and she had headphones with the radio playing.

Once the MRI was done we headed back home but not before stopping for supper!  Her nurses told her she could have whatever she wanted for supper because she deserved it after being so brave and patient. Gabby's diet has been pretty restricted since surgery so being told she could have anything was quite the treat! What would you choose?  For us this meant PIZZA!!!!!!

We will head back June 1 to discuss the results and find out what the plan is for treatment based on the test results!