Bone biopsy accomplished

Carter's shades after getting his eyes dilated

This morning before the bone biopsy of Carter’s second rib, the radiologist said he didn’t have high expectations for even getting a bone sample. He also said in looking at the scan, he doesn’t believe it is cancer. We were wondering why we were even going through with the procedure. He reminded us that if it is something bad though, you want to know about it. It’s just not the most conclusive test…however, it doesn’t seem like there is one at this point.

Well, after about 90 minutes he came in and told us he was able to get a bone sample. We asked him if he was able to get it from that “nodule” area. He said he wouldn’t even describe it as a nodule. He then said a nodule is more like a mass, and this is not a mass. So, that made us feel better. After another 20-30 minutes, they came and got us to go see Carter in the recovery room. It’s always the same thing when he’s coming out of the anesthesia, screaming and crying for Mama or Dada. Luckily, once we get there he is pretty consolable. He had a couple hours of being monitored, and then we were able to go home. Carter was looking and acting great by the time we were home. We should get these results by Wednesday afternoon.
Of course, we were only home less than two hours before it was time to head back over to CHOC to meet with the ophthalmologist. This appointment was hard to get, so we didn’t want to reschedule it if we didn’t have to. And as it turns out, Matt and I are happy we went. The doctor said Carter’s left eye is definitely lazy and needs to be corrected. He also said if it isn’t corrected at this age, the child could go blind in that eye. The optic nerve is not completely developed and if it begins to go lazy, it may never develop and the child would lose site and become legally blind in that eye.

Carter will need to wear an eye patch on the stronger eye to help the lazy eye gain strength. He will need to wear it for about three hours each day for the next six weeks. If the eye has not corrected itself, it may require surgery (or many surgeries) the doctor said.

We are so glad we were proactive about this because it could have been a lot worse. And we are getting Carter excited to be a pirate tomorrow…we’ll see how long that excitement lasts!