Update on Carrie

I’m sure most of you know, but here’s an update on Carrie. I’ll start at the beginning for those who haven’t heard.

A couple of months ago (during their move), Carrie was experiencing some headaches accompanied by flashes of light. She thought they were migraines, of course. Then right around Christmas, she started seeing a shadow over one quadrant of her right eye. She waited several days, until Brian finally insisted she see the doctor.

The first thing he did was schedule a brain MRI. That was done last Thursday evening, and when she left, the technician told her she should hear from her doctor in 2-3 days. That was reassuring, because she knew if there were any abnormalities, she would hear from her doctor immediately. They called her on Tuesday to say the results were normal, and the next thing was to see an ophthalmologist. She couldn’t get in until Friday, yesterday. On Wednesday, the shadow increased. On Friday, she discovered it was an emergency situation. It was a detached retina. Even worse, the retina in her other eye has started to break down also. It appears she has some genetic condition causing this rather than any injury.

They took her into surgery last night and put a “scleral buckle” on the first (and worst) one. By this morning, her retina was 99% flattened back into the eye, and the doctor is very optimistic her vision may be saved. She has to do some healing and then they will laser the retina to bond it. As soon as this eye is stable, she needs work on her other eye. It may be a challenging several months ahead, but we are all feeling much better about it today than we were yesterday.

From a google search, I found this website which shows an illustration of the problem along with the treatment options.

We have had many people praying for her, and the prayers will be continuing in the coming weeks. We send our thanks out to everyone.