Hello everyone, I am new to this as of today.. never realized it existed before.. I guess we will start off with my name which is Holly. My daughter Daizha was born on November 27 2009 and she is my only daughter out of 4 children and she is beautiful. I noticed when I was looking at her in the hospital I could tell something was not right with her eye.. I brought this up to the nurse who told me it was a strawberry birthmark. I kept insisting that something was not right and told her that when I attempted to look at her eye that it seemed much smaller than the other. She told me it was fine and the doctors would look at it. I was very worried and contacted my mother and told her what was going on and she told me to calm down and not jump to anything yet.

The doctors came in a few hours later and told me that Daizha had what is called Microphthalmia. Everything they said after that was a blur until I heard the words tumor and cancer. We took her for CT scans and I was told that everything looked okay because whatever it was had not been spread to anywhere but her left eye. But that I needed to make a choice right then, either we could leave the eye in, and hope it was not cancer, put her through chemo treatments (which since we did not know for sure that option was completely out in my mind, I was not putting my 1 week old through chemo) or we could have her eye removed and they could see what was going on and possibly stop in case it was cancer. I am hoping that when she gets older she does not hate me for the choice that I made.

The link below is a picture of her eye before removal:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... =3&theater

When she was 6 weeks old we took her to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh and they removed her eye. She did fantastic. They told me that the eye was 1/10 the size of her other eye. Once they ran tests they determined that the eye was completely calcified and although it had not been cancerous it was a good decision to have it removed when we did so that we could start with the enlargement process. Since it had been fully calcified her eye socket would never have grown at all. Once everything was healed we started the process of enlarging it, for a while she wore what I called her "sorry piece" because it reminded me of the pieces you use during the game of sorry.

The link below is of my princess smiling away with her "sorry piece"

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... =3&theater


Right now Daizha is 2 and a half and she is so full of life, she loves to take her eye out and hand it to you and she tells people "this is my bad eye I have no eye here it got taken away" it breaks my heart when she says that but I know she will be okay. She is still wearing a cosmetic conformer right now but soon her doctor said he wants to make her prosthetic eye. She absolutely loves her eye doctor and so do I, he is very amazing at what he does and with all of his patients.

This link is a newer picture of Daizha

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... =3&theater

I can not seem to add any pictures directly on here of Daizha but have posted links and am on facebook if anyone else is,

http://www.facebook.com/holly.heckman.9

Hello Holly and welcome to L/E, where you will find lots of support,
for yourself and Daizha.
You have made the right decision for your beautiful daughter, what a lovely smile she has, looks very happy and content.
Cross all the bridges as they come. Daizha has 3 doting brothers by the looks of it, they too will stick up for her!
Best wishes

Hi Holly,
Im certain you have made the right decision for your dear wee girl.
She is just beautiful and looks so happy and contented obviously due to a very loving family.
Raylene xx

Hi Holly; welcome to LE. What a beaut little girl and great smiley pics. You can't 2nd guess cancer so your decision at the time was truly the only one to make. She's happy and I'm sure hitting all her development markers for her age group. If you have any problems or issues with medical jargon just ask. I had melanoma in my left eye at 40 and it was removed. I'm happy with my prosthetic and it's movement. OH! Pop into Moolooh Lounge for some fun. Cheers vera

Hi Holly
I too had my eye removed as a baby and you wrote " I am hoping that when she gets older she does not hate me for the choice that I made." It sounds to me that your daughter is as fortunate as I was and had a loving family. This will help her get over the difficult times as each age brings it's own challenges for a child. She wont hate you for making that decision, I always felt for my parents having the agony of having to take that decision.

What I didn't have was the trauma of suddenly losing an eye later in life as I grew up not knowing any different nor having to adjust to only seeing out of one eye.

Tony

I also lost my eye as a child, and I know it was more difficult for my parents to have made the decision. Unfortunately my parents never wanted to touch this topic and in the end it affected me because every time my prosthesis comes out I get very nervous and up to this day I can't look at myself in the mirror without it. Speak to your child and make her feel comfortable about it.

Thank you everyone for your replies. I feel a little better knowing that I did do the right thing by Daizha. We talk about it all the time, and she has no weird feelings about it, others ask what happened and I give them a short version of the story and they are fine with it also. We did not treat her any different, and she has thankfully gotten to the point that when she takes it out or it falls out she will hand it to me or another adult, many times she will go get the solution for us to put it back in. It is definitely not something that we shy away from, it is a part of her and is as precious as she is.

Hello again, you will get to see this lovely child grow into a fine young woman, she is well on her way with such a loving family.

Hi Holly; well done on your approach and open-ness; children can handle everything that is done in a supportive and loving environment. cheers vera

Hi Holly
Welcome to LE - how wonderful that you shared such an amazing story.
You made all the right decisions, as Vera says you don't second guess
cancer. The photo's are a delight to look, what a gorgeous smile.
She will do so wonderfully well with your attitude and openness.
Keep posting when you can. Best wishes Sally

Hi Holly, you have done a great job of showing what you can do when you have to get things done and I am sure your daughter will do the same, take care and enjoy the forums.

Tom