- We are on our way
to Livia's checkup.
I think they might dilate her eyes today.
I don't know.
But we're definitely
getting her pressure checked
and see how's she doin'.
It's been about a month
since we've seen this doctor.
(upbeat music)
If you're new to our channel
as of the last five or six months,
back in December we had our 7th child
and she was born blind in her left eye
due to a cataract that was in her eye.
I found the cataract when
she was four days old.
Christmas Eve, we were
at Children's Hospital
getting a ultrasound
of our daughter's eye.
Do you remember this place?
It's been a while.
Hi sweet girl.
When a baby is born
with one cataract in their eye,
it is not hereditary.
And it has a higher chance
of being a tumor in the eye.
So that was why the doctors
were very adamant
about getting her right in, right away
because if it was a tumor
then they had to get in there
immediately to take care of it.
What do you see when you
remember places like this?
(giggling)
Is that what you see?
Good news is, it was only a cataract.
Bad news is, she still had
to have surgery for it.
So when she was four weeks old
she had surgery.
They removed the lens in her left eye
and now she wears a
contact in her left eye.
Her cataract surgery
caused glaucoma in her eye
where the pressure in her eye got too high
and her eye started bulging.
And so around three or four months old,
she had surgery, glaucoma surgery,
to remove the pressure from her eye,
to release the pressure.
So that has been quite the journey.
(baby screaming)
Is that what you think of this?
You got half an hour left
on your patch time, girly.
Countin' down.
Almost done.
Hi.
I love you.
(baby cooing)
Yeah.
So today was another pressure check.
We did actually have to
see a retina specialist
twice over the last few months
after her glaucoma surgery
because there was a good amount
of blood left in her eye
after her glaucoma surgery.
So we had a retina specialist check
and make sure that that blood
was not anywhere in her eye
to where it was gonna affect her vision.
And she's clear on that.
Her vision is okay.
The blood that's left in there
is doing great.
The retina specialist actually told us
that we didn't have to see him anymore.
So, that was very good news.
Today the doctor dilated Livia's eyes,
or just her eye, just her one left eye
that she had surgery on,
to make sure that the blood
was still going away
and he said it is.
It's lessening every
single time he sees it.
It's getting better.
There's less and less blood in there.
Her pressure was great.
It was at a 14 today.
We're all done.
Hey Livia, can you look at Mamma?
Woo!
Can we see the difference of those pupils?
This one's dilated over here.
Yeah, put your sunglasses back on.
I'm sorry.
You're tired.
You're gonna sleep on the way home.
So we've been noticing Livia
kinda getting cross-eyed
every once in a while with her eyes.
And he said it is very common
for a child that has had a cataract
to also be cross-eyed.
I'm asking for prayers on that,
just for her muscle
in her eye to be strengthened
and to do what it needs to do
so that her vision can be straight,
her eye can be straight,
and prevent that surgery.
Straighten them out.
There you go.
Good job.
Livia's pressure was good.
It's at a 14.
I was kind of hoping that we would be able
to start weaning her off the eyedrops
that she's on right now.
But that's not the case.
She's gonna be staying on these eyedrops.
And I talked to the doctor
and he said some kids
always stay on the eyedrops.
Which could be her case,
indefinitely she'll be on them.
Which is not bad for her.
Just something to keep the
glaucoma under control.
The other thing that I
talked to the doctor about,
is Livia has started to kinda look
like she's getting cross-eyed.
And the doctor was like,
yeah that's kinda common
for kids that have a cataract.
That they develop strambisis, strambosus.
I don't know how to pronounce it.
It's another word that we
will probably be learning
because he said it's highly likely
that she will get that
and need to have surgery again for that.
I'm not handling it
as great as I was hoping.
I was actually hoping
to talk to you guys about this
before dinner time and
before it got evening
and I had more time to think about it.
But now it's bed time
and I've been thinking about it
and struggling a little bit more
with it than I was earlier today.
Will this ever end?
Is there an end in sight?
I don't know.
I think the end for her will be
her learning how to just
do it on her own
and me not have to take
care of her for everything.
Which will be a few years.
And that's okay.
But also through this,
trying not to be so upset about it
and just teach her like, you know what?
This is it.
God gave you something special
and He's gonna do
something awesome with it.
And He's definitely
teaching Mommy about it.
And I'm learning a lot from it.
And that's a good thing.
We would love for you to
follow along our journey.
She's one of a kind girl
and a family with seven kids
and it's been so amazing
to see the different relationships
that are blossoming
and just the different dynamics
that there is for so
many kids in one house.
And it's really cool to see.
So I hope you stick around
and watch it with us.
See ya.
