Ameena’s Eye Injury – Part I

September 8, 2010

In response to those who have asked for the story and in trying to keep everyone updated, I thought I would write Ameena’s story so far.

It was a beautiful Sunday morning (September 5, 2010) and we were all excited about a day to rest, do some projects around the house, and see friends.

I was sitting on the couch, Caleb was resting in bed, and the kids were playing a game on the computer. A little after 8a, I heard Ameena from down the hall saying to her siblings, “I’m going to make Mommy and Daddy breakfast!” Malachi asked if she wanted help and she said that she wanted to do it all by herself. So, I watched her gleefully run to the kitchen without telling me directly what she was up to. This is something Malachi started around her age, so I decided to just sit and wait.

She poured an overflowing bowl of cereal with tons of milk and brought it in to where I was sitting. Then, headed back into the kitchen to start on her daddy’s breakfast. After hearing the coffee grinder and some pounding, I heard a little voice say, “uh oh”…..and then “Mommy? Can you come help me?” I stepped into the kitchen to find another overflowing bowl of cereal soggily waiting for delivery to Caleb and coffee grounds all over the counter and floor. “No worries”, I said. “Let’s just brush them into the coffee maker. He’ll never notice.” She had already poured in the water, I added the coffee grounds, and we pushed the ‘brew’ button (after blowing out a few extra grounds that were keeping it from moving to the ‘on’ position.)

Caleb never uses cream “unless the coffee needs it”. So, I had Acacia grab it out of the fridge, just in case. Haleigh grabbed the sugar, Ameena grabbed the soggy cereal, and I took the coffee to avoid any unfortunate accidents. Off we went to deliver breakfast in bed to sleeping Daddy. Ameena was so proud of herself and delivered her food creations, and full description of her experience in making them, with a big smile on her face.

Then, she hopped off the bed and said that she needed to go work on breakfast for her brother and sisters, and bounded up the stairs. (I later told Ameena that I was so sad that this happened while she was being so sweet to make breakfast for the whole family. And, she never actually got to make her own.)

I stayed to hang out watching Caleb’s first bites of his soggy cereal and “not so bad” coffee. And then was ordered “nigh nigh” by Haleigh and made to lay down on the bed. (She’s kind of bossy in her playtime….we’re still trying to figure out where she gets that from.

Minutes later, we heard Ameena crying and Caleb jumped up from the bed saying, “That doesn’t sound good”. You know, not just the cry you hear when someone is fighting with a sibling or trying to convince someone that they need attention. But, the kind that physically picks you up and moves you. You just know you need to go. But, it wasn’t a cry that said, “Something horrific has happened.” We later wondered if maybe she was in shock.

I met Caleb on the stairs as he was bringing Ameena down and he said, “She says she poked herself with a knife”.

“WHAT!?”

We brought her into our room, turned off the light, and borrowed Malachi’s spy light to try and see what was going on in her eye. We didn’t have it open long when I knew it didn’t look right. The way I described it later to our physician friend was if you cut your finger and there is a flap of skin sticking up, only on her eye. I closed her eye and said, “We have to take her in”.

Now, for those of you who know me, you know it’s got to be serious for these words to come out of my mouth, especially on a Sunday on a holiday weekend, which could mean nothing less than a visit to the ED. I myself, other than when I was born, and 1 other weird kidney-testing incident as a 1 year-old that my mom described as we sat in the hospital late at night, have never been admitted to the hospital. And this is the twin born at home that we’re talking about taking to the hospital.

OK, you get it. So, anyway, I grabbed my phone and headed up the stairs to figure out a plan, trying not to bust into tears. On my way up the stairs, I called our good friend Deb, who is also a family physician and she got to work for us right away (I’ll say more about this later, but I can not tell you how amazing it was to have her in this role).

While we waited, Caleb headed to Walgreens for an eye patch and a little pick-me-up for Ameena. Haleigh picked out a cute singing card, and we all signed it.

After a few phone calls, we headed to Children’s Hospital in Aurora, where the Emergency Department doc would be waiting for us, and an on-call pediatric Opthamalagist would be available. We have a family member who recently had an eye injury that was treated with a special lens to cover the injury. I imagined Ameena would need the same type of thing and wondered how she was going to handle it all. We arrived to a room half-full of people waiting to be seen. And Ameena’s was the 2nd name to be called (Thanks Deb!).

During one of the many eye exams, one of the doctors compared both of her eyes. It was then that I realized that she would need far more extensive treatment than just a special lens to heal the wound. As we looked at her left eye, it suddenly looked huge and round in comparison to her injured right eye, which was now clearly misshapen–in fact, her pupil was actually oval shaped.

After 3 hours, conversations with 7 people, numerous eye exams, lots of little decisions along the way, and a diagnosis of “corneal laceration with a disrupted globe”, we came to the conclusion that Ameena would need to have surgery on her eye to close the wound.

To be continued…

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