19 February 2009

Why are Whitney's eyes dilated?

This has been an interesting week. Last Tuesday 11th Feb, while at school in the middle of a class Whitney suddenly lost vision in her right eye. Yes, completely black. Alvan was called and he came and collected her from school. He called the 1300 health line for guidance and they sent out an ambulance to check it out. The paramedics said she should go to hospital, she didn't want to to do that so Alvan took her to the drs. The doctor told her she had to go to hospital, so only at this stage did I get a phone call. Alvan called to let me know when I finished work (in 10 mins), to meet them at the Mater Hospital. You can image the panic I felt.... I met them about 40 mins later at the emergency room of the Mater Hospital. After a number of tests, (one of which involved dilated her pupils) from nurses, interns, registrars and the dr on duty, and because by now she was seeing light and a few moments, but nothing distinct, we were sent home and told we'd hear from the specialist tomorrow for an appointment. When she woke up the next day, she had vision albeit very blurry. I stayed home from work the next day, the specialist called in the morning to say he could only fit her in after hours about 6.30pm that day. At lunchtime I got a call from the Mater Eye Clinic saying the specialist has asked for Whitney to come in now. So we rush in (staying in the speed limit of course). Where we spend 6 hours seeing registrars and nurses and doing another round of tests. Only to be told they don't know what it is and she'll have to make an appointment to see the Opthomologist next Tuesday. Her vision stayed blurry until Friday morning, when it suddenly came right again. On Tuesday this week, Alvan took her to see Dr Pane (yes, that really is he's name) who ran some more tests, having her eyes dilated again. He said he had two ideas, the most likely was a spasm of the vein behind the eye (he sees about 10 cases a year of that), or a mini stroke. So she began another barrage of tests which lasted to the end of the day and included a exercise stress echocardiogram & bubble study, and a corotid duplex, not to mention a plethoria of blood tests. After a very long day (11 hours worth), the news is good from the results of the stress echo and duplex tests, blood tests still unknown, but looking most likely to be a spasm. She sees Dr Pane again next Tuesday for an absolute answer... we hope!! So now you know why Whitney's eyes are dilated!! Enjoy everything you see today, and be grateful for your sight.