Braden Update

Today Braden went to Duke for a TWO HOUR appointment about his eye. Brian took him since it's close to where he works then he spent the rest of the day doing independent work (which took all of 30 min) and playing.

A nurse came in to see him. Two different residents came in. Then a cornea specialist, and finally a pediatric ophthalmologist. Apparently what's going on with his eye was enough to get everyone in the department down to see it under the scope. They took close up pictures of his eye which I'm guessing will show up in a medical book by the way they were acting. Braden was a trooper through it all and never complained. This boy gets drops that BURN every hour and doesn't say a word.

Basically we found out that the original ophthalmologist was treating him for pink eye. I don't have a medical degree but I know pink eye and could have told him that's not what it was. He never told us that's what he thought Braden had but we're guessing he just didn't know what to do and gave him those drops. So the drops Braden was using would get rid of the redness and make Brian and I think it was better but the infection was still getting worse and worse in his eye (where we couldn't see).

They have no idea what is wrong with his eye other than it's a raging infection. They don't know what kind of infection (fungal, bacterial, etc.) His cornea is permanently damaged and the white stuff covering his eye is pus from the infection. They are being very aggressive with how they are treating him because they don't want the pus to cover his pupil completely and make his vision even worse. Because they aren't sure what caused the infection (or what kind it is) they have him on a variety of antibiotics. He has Bacitracin (like Neosporin ointment) that we put in four times a day, Vigomax (drops) that we put in every hour, and they want him to take an oral antibiotic (Augmentin) because they want to try to put as much in his system as possible to fight the infection (since they don't know where it's coming from).

He goes back Thursday for another appointment where he will see all of the doctors again to check the progress.

Basically we still don't have answers but know that we are in the right place now with doctors who are going to be diligent about how to help the infection to not get worse, and hopefully make it go away so no further damage will be done.

Thank you for all the prayers and please keep them coming!