The ER

Last Wednesday, we had to take Jasper to an urgent doctor's appointment for what we suspected to be an eye infection, and then to the ER to figure out what kind. After a CT scan, it was confirmed to be Preseptal cellulitis of the right eye.

A good scientist only changes one variable at a time, but stressed parents sometimes change two, and pay the price. We believe we ended up in the ER with little Jasper for a combination of two reasons.

First, we were trying to extend the time he wears his conformer. For growth reasons, both our eye specialist and prosthetics team have been encouraging us to have Jasper wear it all the time. We had been comfortably doing 12 hours a day during the daytime, but tried overnight as well on Tuesday. When he seemed OK still the next morning (Wed morning) we left his conformer in. At noon on Wednesday (roughly 30 hours into wearing his conformer) his daycare called and said that he was rubbing at his eye and saying "ow". Travis drove over and took his conformer out for him. Then he went down for a nap like usual.

Now, when I say “daycare”, I mean Michelle. Her and her family have become family to us. She often knows when Jasper has an ear infection before we do. She is so attentive to our sweet little Jasper and takes incredible care of him. So when she told us she was very concerned, we didn’t question it. She called us after his nap and said that his eye looked puffy and swollen, and that he couldn't stay awake. We immediately took him to the doctors.

Once again, we have been impressed with Mosaic Medical. Jasper’s pediatrician was out that day, but they got us in right away with another doctor, and she got our eye specialist on the phone. They told us that he definitely had an eye infection, but to know if it was a “front of the eye” or “back of the eye” infection, you need a seeing eye and a communicating person to do the the test. Unfortunately it’s Jasper’s blind eye, and he say’s many words but is not yet advanced enough to say “yes the muscles of my eye hurt when I move them”. So, we had to go to the ER for a CT scan.

By now it was 6 pm. It was dark, and the roads were a little icy. I was sitting in my car with a 5 year old and 3 year old who are used to being at home, finishing dinner by now, beginning to get ready for bed. Jasper and Travis were working their way through the ER system. I had to get the kids food, I had to find somewhere to take them. The doctors told us that it was possible that Jasper would have to stay overnight at the hospital. But we just didn’t know yet.

I have the privilege of teaching art at Trinity Lutheran. We are a tight knit school, and I am so lucky to work with amazing friends and prayer warriors. I decided to text them and ask for prayer. as I sat in the dark parking lot. As the messages of support flooded in, a few even offered us their homes for as long as we needed. My friend Sarah was one of these amazing souls, and only lives a few miles from the hospital. I grabbed the kids food from the nearby food carts and met her at her house. She took such good care of us, entertaining my kids with toys and musical instruments, making me tea and letting me crash out and stare at my phone for updates. I don’t know what I would have done without our community that night.

Meanwhile, Travis was navigating the ER. Not a fun place to be with a small, sick child. Jasper had to get an IV, and then had to wait for the CT scan for over an hour. Travis fed him snacks and tried his best to keep him calm and entertained. I think it might have been the longest hours of his life. Finally, around 9 pm we got the answer - it was an infection of the surrounding tissues of the eye, not the eye itself. So we could start antibiotics and go home. Praise!

I said in the beginning that we changed two factors. The other thing we changed was that we had stopped washing his conformer with soap. We had been sterilizing his conformer every morning before putting it in, but we were told by our prosthetics team that the way were were washing it was damaging the acrylic of the conformer. It also leaves trace residue that can irritate the eye, so we began wiping it with a wet paper towel as instructed.

Here is the rub. As parent’s, we have to find a way to balance his long term growth goals with his short term health and comfort. This is all very new, and we have to take all of the experts advice and the “ideal” situation and hold it next to the realities of having a 1 year old with an eye deformity. There isn’t a playbook for normal parenting, let alone things like this.

We have discussed all of these factors with Jasper's Pediatrician, and have decided to continue keeping Jasper on the 12 hour plan for now, as well as finding a way to clean his conformer more than just with a wet paper towel.

We are muddling through all of this to the best of our ability. We are blessed to be surrounded by friends and family that hold us up in prayer and with acts of kindness. We are blessed that Jasper is the spunkiest go-getter, and that only having half-vision doesn’t seem to slow him down one bit. Prayers for wisdom are always appreciated.