1/18/12 - A bright sunshiny day

Haylee had her opthalmologist appointment this morning at 8:45am.  She's never had her eyes checked like this before so I tried to tell her what to expect (but I've never had my eyes checked before so I didn't even know what to expect!).  We went in and the doctor checked her eyes on the chart and then dilated her eyes.  I told her the lights would be bright and everything may look fuzzy for a while.  Once her eyes were fully dilated, he looked inside them at her retinas and optic nerves.  He was concerned about her left optic nerve because it was "3+ swollen".  I have no idea what that means but he sounded concerned about it.  Knowing her diagnosis, he called up Dr. Cooper at Egleston to speak with them further about what he saw.  He kept saying "radiation emergency" and "cause for concern" and "urgent"...you know, frightening stuff!!  He told me to go about my day and he would call me after he talked with Dr. Cooper further to let me know what to do.  He called me about an hour later and said that they were going to try and schedule an MRI this week or the first part of next to see what they see.  I decided not to get anymore concerned than I was at that point until I spoke with Dr. Cooper further. 
We went to Barnes and Noble to get a few books for me and then went to Chik-Fil-A for lunch to kill some time.  She kept saying how bright everything was and the light hurt her eyes.  She just kept her hands over her eyes to shield them from the light.  She was a good sport about it :)  When we had nothing else to do, we went ahead and headed down to the hospital early.  We got there at 12pm (an hour early for our appointment) but they went ahead and took us back since they had an open chair!  Haylee immediately went into the school room and Maggie hooked her up shortly after (about 12:30pm).
Dr. Cooper came by and talked with me more about Haylee's eye.  He's going to try and schedule her to have another MRI as well as a lumbar puncture to make sure her swollen optic nerve isn't caused by leukemia cells taking refuge on her nerve and that there is no leukemia in her spinal cord.  Usually they automatically do an LP on every leukemia patient except APL patients because of the bleeding problem.  If the MRI shows no leukemia on her nerves, they will send us to the Emory eye doctor they use to see what's going on further.  She could have a fungus behind her eye or it could be eye related.  If it shows leukemia, they will treat it accordingly.  Basically, I have to wait for the MRI be done and results to come back before I can move forward. 
Haylee did test positive for nearsightedness so I ordered her some glasses.  She picked some cute redish-pink frames.  She's gonna be so cute!  I'll post pictures when she gets them in.