Getting a New Eye!

The New Eye Team

Miriam's First New Eye

Miriam and Jennie are on their way home from getting Miriam’s new eye!

It is a little bigger so she can grow into it and she still needs to have surgery on her eyelid to keep it from drooping - but it is a great start!

I am so excited to see my little girl!

Creating the Eye

A Day of Fasting and Prayer

On the 14th of this month we are going to Iowa City to get a game plan for how we should proceed in caring for Miriam's eye. On the 19th we go to Sioux Falls for a second opinion.

I am asking everyone we know to consider setting aside Tuesday July 13th as a day of fasting and prayer for Miriam.

At this point there are three routes before us:

Route 1: Her eye has some vision and we set a course for physical therapy and surgeries that will aid her on the road to some form of recovery (knowing she will never have perfect vision).

Route 2: She has already lost all vision in the eye and it is dying, we then make plans as to when she will get a prosthetic eye and look to saving vision in her good eye (because she is so young there is a risk of her going all the way blind as the eye atrophy's).

Route 3: God heals her eye totally.
Of course there are scenarios that lay between all extremes that could happen also.

Please join us on the 13th in setting aside a day to pray and fast for our little girl.

Not doing great - but doing okay...

We had surgery done in town a while back and the doctor did not give Miriam a shot of Steroids like he was supposed too � so she has been in a lot of pain and is spending a lot of the day covering her head saying that her eye hurts.

We are waiting for Iowa City to get back to us on a plan for her to come there and get the proper care because neither times she has received care here in Sioux City has it been done correctly.

Miriam is a sweet little girl who likes to play and when you only get a few hours of the day to play with out pain you tend to get very cranky - so she is prone to throwing the occasional fit now and again.
It is heartbreaking to watch her stumble over things trying to get around with her eyes closed.

I want so much for my little girl to be all better.

Bad News

Today we learned that Miriam's retina is now fully detached except the area they repaired before. She is going in for surgery again this afternoon but the outcome does not look good.

They are telling us now that she will loose sight in her eye and that when she turns 12 she will probably need it removed and have a prosthetic so that she can have a normal appearance to her face.

9 years leaves a lot of time for God to heal her - but our prayer is it happens today :-)

Please keep Miriam in your prayers, she needs it.

Minor surgery today - at least it was local

The Doctor here in Sioux City removed a stitch and gave Miriam a shot in hope that it will help her headaches.

For about a week she has been holding her head a lot and asking to go to "Iowa City, so the Doctor can fix my eye". We were concerned over the weekend she may have an infection hence today's operation.

Doctor says the eye looks good and seems to be healing well, but Miriam is still having some headaches.

Doing good...Sorry this took so long

I apologize I have not updated this in a while things have been rather busy. Miriam is doing well, although we do not know whether she can see or not; she likes to tell people that a stick flew up and tore her eye and now it doesn't work this could just be 3 year old logic.

She also asks every hour if she can go to Iowa City and get her eye fixed.

Again we are up in the air until her next surgery on the 28th of May.
Jennie and I are having a really tough time putting her drops in  she screams bloody murder and clamps her eye shut forcing us to have to pin her down and pry it open and pray we get the right amount in.

It can be a very heart wrenching experience.

On a positive note our insurance is now fully approved and they will now be bearing the load of a good percentage of the bills.

Well, I will keep this updated a little better from now on - I will try to update it on Fridays from now on unless something happens in between.

She is home again, but...

She will need to return on Wednesday for another procedure on Thursday.

Still in the dark...

Miriam's retina was torn and ripped so they repaired it and placed a gas bubble around the eye. If this was the only problem she would have a 85% chance of regaining full vision.

Miriam Has been in surgery 6 hours...

And I still no nothing. Apparently there was a lot of damage to the retina and maybe to the optical nerve.

Miriam may have lost part of her vision in that eye - PRAY THIS IS NOT THE CASE!

I am waiting on Jennie to call now with more.

Jennie and Miriam are once again in Iowa City

They met with the Doctor today and a retina specialist that will be on had tomorrow during Miriam's surgery to perform a retina transplant if needed.

This weekend (while they where home) Miriam was in good spirits when ever her medicine was working. She tired quickly and when the medicine wares off she gets a BAD headache from the swelling of the eye.

The hardest part is that she has to have 3 different drops (one cost $100 a bottle!) every 12 hours and she absolutely does not like having them put in.

Depending on how the surgery goes tomorrow we are expecting them back home no later than Thursday evening. However, if a retina transplant is needed it will have to be done in two parts which means they may need to be there a week longer.

Jennies parents will be here on Wednesday to help out (thank God) and I have returned to work utilizing babysitters for Noah during the day until the In-Laws arrive.

Our specific prayer is that all goes well tomorrow and no major surgeries are needed. Pray that her retina and cornea are undamaged and in working order.

She is home, but...

Miriam and Jennie came home with me yesterday and it is good to have them home. They must return on Monday for an appointment and for another surgery on Tuesday. Miriam had an ultrasound while I was there on Wednesday - we don't know for sure, but the Dr. who did the ultrasound seems to think that the stick did not damage the cornea - the surgery on Tuesday will tell us for sure.

We know that even the best case presents us with months of recovery and even a stint of having to where a patch over her good eye to force the healing eye to heal.

Please pray that the cornea is not damaged and that Miriam's sight will not be effected.

I am heading up there

Tomorrow (Wednesday) the Doctors want to meet with us to have a dialog about further surgeries and the future of Miriam's eye. I have decided to join Jennie in Iowa City during this meeting to provide strength and support as well as ascertain what needs to happen in the next few months to a year.

I will be leaving early tomorrow morning and will leave the boys here with Amber - I plan to return as late as Thursday morning if not earlier.

We know that Miriam needs more procedures and she will need to be in Iowa City many times in the coming months or longer. We are in this for the long haul and appreciate your prayers.

This thought came in an email from Jennie's mom about how they are doing:

"She (Jennie) wants you to be there with her so you can hold her and support her when Miriam gets so very angry with her for having to put in the drops."

From what Jennie tells me the drops hurt and have to be put in the right spot or they cause a reaction that is not very comfortable for Miriam.

Everyone continues to offer support and we are thankful - we just don't know what we need right now because everything is so up in the air. I hope to have more info tommorow.

Waiting on the doctors

Jennie will be in the Quad Cities until at least Wednesday when she meets with the doctors in Iowa City. The two specialists now want to sit down to talk over the situation and option for surgery with Jenny before proceeding with more.
Miriam has had a bit of an off day today, she is complaining about her eye bothering her. Tonight she seems to have perked up a bit, I think she was just missing her Auntie Cyndi while I was at work.

Cheryl (Jennie's Mom) did head back to Washington this morning, my mom and dad (Jennie's Grandma and Grandpa) kept Jennie and Miriam company this afternoon.

====End of email====

For those who are reading this we need prayer for our financial ability to handle this situation. The antibiotics for her eye (which she has to have, because if she catches an infection she loses the eye) cost $55. Thankfully Jennie has family to be with but we can't mooch of them forever so God is going to need to provide for us a way to get the medical attention Miriam needs and live 5 hours away from where it is provided.

Everything is so up in the air

We are going through a really tough time right now as we have no idea what, when or how the next 90 days is going to call for.

The stress is starting to kick in and both Jennie and I are feeling tired and a little depressed.

Miriam needs multiple procedures, all of which require her to be sedated meaning that a time-line is almost impossible for us to plan for.

Jennie is still 6 hours away - the boys and I are still here and the demands of family, work and church still need to be taken care of.

At this point the fate of Miriam's eye is fully in the hands of God- I am confident in His healing ability and the wonder of His creation; even if she were to lose her sight in one eye I am confident the handiwork of God would prevail and compensate.

At this point we are still believing that her sight has not been effected.

Keep praying - we need it.

She is out of the hospital

Miriam was checked out today. She is now staying with Jennie at her aunt Cindy's.

She is opening her eye and in good spirits she may have another surgery on Tuesday we will know more later.

Miriam Feeling a little down

Miriam woke up feeling a little depressed today. She told her mom - I never get to go home and was curled up in a ball crying.
A visit with a counselor and a little play time later she was feeling a little chipper.

The doctor is telling Jennie that Miriam may need to stay longer than just the weekend. Her eye is clouding up (which is a good sign because it means that it is healing) but they will need to remove the clouding before they can do operate on the hemorrhage.

We have decided that Miriam's eye is worth Jennie staying there with her for as long is necessary.

Continue to pray.

How Miriam Hurt Her Eye

On Wednesday, April 14th Miriam was in the backyard playing when she picked up a piece of an old yardstick (wooden) and broke it. A piece of the stick flew up and hit her in the eye.

Jennie called me at work and said something was wrong, we quickly rushed Miriam to the hospital where the gave her emergency surgery to stitch up her eye. It seems as though a piece of the stick punctured her eye causing the Iris to stick through the lens, a cataract to form an the back of the eye to hemorrhage.

The Doctor informed us that Miriam would need to go to the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa to have another surgery to remove the cataract.

Amber drove Jennie and Miriam to Iowa City on Thursday for what we thought at the time would be a day surgery. This is when we found out it was much more serious and that Miriam would need to stay a while.

So Amber returned home and Jennie's mom flew out on Friday night to be with them. Thankfully, Jennies Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt live only 45 minutes away from Iowa City and have been there with her every day.Saturday, April 17th, 2004 at 09:44 AM - By: Dad