Jacob's Eye appt at Shands

Friday, August 7th was another long appointment at Shands. We had an appointment with a new doctor. A neuro-opthamologist- Dr. Robert Habour. He is out of Pensacola, but travels to Shands in Gainesville twice a month.

After 5 hours and several tests, pictures, and meeting with other doctors and techs we finally met Dr. Habour. After all of theses things we still aren't sure what is going on with Jacob's vision. It seems to be something is wrong with his optic nerve. They did testing that showed Jacob does not have nearsightedness or farsightedness and that stronger glasses won't help him see better. They checked the pressure in the eye and dilated the eye to look for any visual tumors or abnormalities. Pressure was normal and they didn't see anything on Jacob's retina. One of the doctors also said that the light reflected from the back of the eye and this was good. As we already knew Jacob suffers from a drusen, but the doctors informed me that it is so mild it shouldn't be causing any problems at this time. The Goldman's fielding testing results were that Jacob only has peripheral vision and no head on vision. They also took photos of Jacob's eye. The pictures reveled that Jacob's optic nerve has atrophy (weakening) and is yellow-pale in color instead of pink. This is of huge concern to Dr. Harbour. This is a huge concern to us. This is Jacob's good eye, his only eye. This eye had 20/30 vision in it only 7 months ago. Dr. Harbour said Jacob needs to have another MRI as soon as possible. Evidently the MRI they did last month doesn't have everything they need. We even tried to get him in Friday night, but weren't able to, so we will be making another trip to Shands very soon.

This is so upsetting, but I won't write about the sadness that I am feeling right now, but keep faith that God will lead Jacob and me and our family through this time.

His MRI will most likely be August 17th. They wanted him to do it sooner, but Dr. Habour said we could wait a week, but not any longer.

Jacob is going on his last summer trip this week for his 13th birthday. Off to Orlando- Universal Studios and Islands of Adventures with his Granma and Aunt Rachel - We will be meeting him in St. Pete on Wednesday for fishing, a Rays game and a birthday party with the Poucher's. Maks, Brie, Erin and Darbi will be with us as well. We are going to forget about our struggles this week and enjoy our time watching and enjoying Jacob being Jacob.