December 14, 2010- A Partial Verdict

    

     Last night, my youngest son and his dad left on Continental airlines to head to Hawaii for a doctor’s appointment. We will be finding out once and for all why he can’t see very well in his left eye and whether or not he’ll ever be able to see fully with both eyes again. My oldest and I wanted to go too, but it’s just too expensive to foot the bill for two more of us. The company, of course, would only pay for the patient and one person to accompany him, and it was going to cost around 100,000 miles a piece at this time of year for my oldest and I to go. So, we awaited news for more than half the day today, and finally, a partial verdict.  Since his vision was 20/20 last year in both eyes, it does appear to be a cataract that has grown substantially in the last 12 months.  The next step is to see two different doctors tomorrow to determine if his retina is detached (which is unlikely), and then to see if his receptors are in good enough shape to bring his vision back to normal if surgery is performed to remove the cataract.  This is, for the most part, positive news, and the best news of all is how much the boys miss each other (normally they get along fairly well, but love to aggravate each other as brothers tend to do). I have been surprised by how much quieter the house is with just one of them in it, and dinner table conversations are much less lively, but we did talk to my baby tonight, and he was in excellent spirits and chatted for quite a long time, especially with his brother, exchanging plenty of “I love you’s and I miss you’s.” It’s nice to hear that from them. I hope they always feel that way about each other and are never too “manly” to stop expressing it! More news tomorrow...