babies and children

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Congenital Glaucoma is the leading cause of childhood blindness. My son, now 3.5 years old has congenital/childhood glaucoma. He was born with this awful disease. We now know that he had the signs of glaucoma at birth. His left eye bulged out and was bigger than his right eye, Both eyes were swollen and red and his corneas looked cloudy and hazy. Our ped. that discharged my son from the hospital after I gave birth to him noted some eye abnormalities and referred us to an opthalmologist. This doctor assesed his eyes, performed a few harmless tests to rule out other diseases, checked his eye pressure and shortly after confirmed the findings of congenital glaucoma. Everything he said after this was a blur except for the part where he said if not controlled he could potentially lose his vision. I had lost it by now. We had a long road ahead of us to control this disease and our faith had been tested many, many times. It is very important to diagnose this disease within the first few weeks of life. Early detection leads to a better prognosis and successful surgeries. One in 10,000 babies are born with this disease. Parents and doctors must be very diligent in there efforts to treat this disease. Childhood glaucoma cannot be cured, it can be controlled through eye drops and/or surgery. Today we are raising a very happy toddler. He is always smiling and laughing, has such a zest for life! We still at times struggle to maintain a good eye pressure and the surgeries still occur. Our son has good vision with a positive prognosis because his glaucoma was dected within the first two weeks of birth and intervention through eye drops and surgeries came shortly after the diagnosis. I cannot stess enough the importance of early detection. We want these children to see the world and we will do just that and more.