Glaucoma

". . . when He found him, He said, 'Do you believe in the Son of Man?' 'Who is He sir?' the man asked. 'Tell me so that I may believe in Him.' Jesus said, 'You have seen Him; in fact, He is the one speaking with you.' Then the man said, 'Lord, I believe,' and he worshiped Him." John 9:35-38

This has become one of my favorite Bible stories. It tells the story of the man born blind. When the disciples see him they ask who sinned--him or his parents? Because there has to be a reason for bad things happening. Bad things don't happen to good people do they? It's the same problem Job's friends had. "Job, just admit you were wrong." But Jesus says, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." Ah. . .so God wants to use everything, even the bad, to display His glory in our lives. . . So to God we give the glory for the healing of our Noah's eyes.

A year ago I had never heard of infantile glaucoma. I barely knew what glaucoma was, but I thought it only happend to "old" people. A year ago whenever I got Noah out of his bed he would bury his face in my shoulder and keep his eyes tightly closed for minutes before opening them. I just thought he was slow to wake up, I mean I hate waking up too. His eyes, which were HUGE and beautiful, always seemed to be tearing. For a long time I assumed he had some really bad allergies. Then his eyes began to get a cloudy apperance. I didn't have a good explanation for that. But as I had never heard of glaucoma, I had no way to know that I should be very concerned. So when I took him to his one year check up I had a few questions for his pediatrician. And at first his pediatrician was as unalarmed as I was, "probably a blocked tear duct." Until he came closer and really looked into his eyes. Suddenly he was very concerned and called the nurse in and told her to make an appointment with a pediatric opthamologist immediately. He told me he had classic symptoms of infantile glaucoma. I was a little in shock and a little naive and didn't ask many questions. Later I learned that this was one of the only times he had actually seen one of his patients with glaucoma. It is a rare condition.

Basically glaucoma is the build up of fluid in the eye that puts pressure on the optic nerve. Symptoms are light sensitivity, excessive tearing, cloudy eyes, large eyes. . .all of which Noah had. If left untreated it can cause blindness. Once we knew what we were up against I felt a sort of peace. If the worst was the loss of eyesight, I could deal with that. Not that it wouldn't be a challenge and an unfortunate thing for Noah to miss sunsets and rainbows and seeing people's faces, but his life was more important to me. So as long as it wasn't life threatening, I thought I could handle it.

So began the journey of eye exams, trips to Riley, being put under anesthesia, surgical procedures (one in each eye a week apart), more exams under anesthesia (EUA)--all with great success. His surgeon, Dr. Katherine Haider was able to perform a cutting edge technology that allowed her to open up four ducts in the back of the eye to relieve pressure. Only a few institutions in the nation are using it, and we just happened to live an hour away from one. Glory to God. It has only been performed successfully a few times, and Noah was two of those times. Glory to God. And it has hardly ever been performed with as much success as Noah's. Most glaucoma patients endure countless procedures to relieve the pressures. But Noah has only needed one procedure for each eye and his pressures are basically normal now. Glory to God.

Today Noah had his 5th EUA. And we got a glowing report. At his initial exams the pressures in his eyes were up around 40--normal is somewhere around 10 or 15. Today his right eye was around 13 and his left eye was around 15. Glory to God. Although Noah still uses drops in his left eye (his left eye had the most initial pressure and is still slightly larger than his right eye) and will probably have at least another EUA (until he learns to let them test his pressure in the clinic) and he will most likely always be very near sighted (he is already wearing glasses)--he has had a miraculous recovery. There is no other way to put it. His eyes are a miracle.

And I pray that just as the LORD has given him physical vision and healing, He will give Noah spiritual vision--that Noah will know the LORD, believe in Him, and worship Him. I am overjoyed that my baby is healthy in many ways and I look forward to watching him grow and develop, SEE and experience God's world, and SEE and walk with God all the days of his life.