Hi all, my names leanne and Im so relieved to find a group who - TopicsExpress



          

Hi all, my names leanne and Im so relieved to find a group who supports kids with cataracts. Im involved in a group for children with type 1 diabetes as my 6 yr old was diagnosed just before Christmas and the T1 group was a blessing for us. Anyway I thought hey there must be something for kids with cataracts and here I am now in this group. Ill start by briefly telling our story about our cataract journey. Our daughter Makayla was diagnosed with bilateral congenital cataracts back in 2002. She was 4 months old at the time and it was such a shock to us. This was not meant to happen to our first child....we had no history in our families and had what we thought a perfect pregnancy. Makayla had cataracts in both eyes and had little to no vision. After seeing our gp we were sent straight to an eye specialist at the Royal Childrens hospital in Melbourne. Makayla had an operation pretty much straight away to remove her left lens as this was the worst of the two. She wore and to this day still wears a contact lens in the left eye and we thought how on earth do we insert and take out a contact lens in a four month old baby. Believe me you learn very quickly. Patching was the next thing or should I say challenge to deal with. As patching was 10+ years ago it is now a faint memory. We would patch her right eye to get her left eye to work. What a challenge and to be honest I thought how is this child going to ever see. Thank goodness for the RVIB, guide dogs and vision Australia for their support, visits and teaching tools so we could really help makayla regain some vision. We had some success with her vision in the left eye so now it was time to work on the right eye. When she was in grade 1 she had that cataract removed and an IOL put in. This worked quite well and that meant her patching therapy stopped. Through out school we had great support, makayla required glasses to help correct vision, she needed larger print at school and used a magnifying sheet at times for her reading. She also benefited from reading recovery as she was lower in that area. We worked very hard with makayla on her education needs and she is now in year 7 and is an A grade reader as well as excelling in all aspects of her schooling. We couldnt be more proud of her. Still lots of appointments in Melbourne but she is such an inspiring young lady to everyone who knows her. I must also say she is a fantastic netballer....goal attack who shoots heaps of goals. This is a sport I never dreamed shed play with her vision. The vision she has she uses extremely well. This is a 12 yr old girl who I thought would sit in a corner and do not much at all. I hope our brief story gives hope to everyone that their children can do absolutely anything they want to. Again Im pleased Ive come across this group. Cheers, Leanne xo
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 03:45:06 +0000

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