Kiera's 1st Birthday!

Kiera turned 1 year old on November 5th! We were just coming home from Kade's operation in Salt Lake so we celebrated on Friday. Kari and Kya decided Kiera should have a "Care Bear" theme birthday, so this is my attempt at a Care Bear cake.
Kiera got her own little cake to enjoy. Dad is looking up for this picture, and his eye looks better from the surgery, although he still has no vision.
Kiera is digging in with her nose!
"We should always eat cake this way!"
"I am doing a great job eating my birthday cake!"
"Now I just have to get all the frosting off of my fingers and hands."
"Would you like to try some of my cake?"
Mommy and Kiera. I'm so proud of Kiera for being so messy, oh wait, she is always messy. I am still proud of her.
Silly Kiera with Uncle Clint and Aunt Karla.
Grandma Beth has some very inticinig beads. Those beads are great to teeth on. Kiera has 10 teeth. Those molars and tough coming in. Kiera is close to walking, she just gets too much help for her fan club of big sisters. Kiera loves following big sisters around and getting into anything and everything they are. She is kind of a momma's girl (the only one). Kiera is a joy to have in our family and she is learning more fun words all the time.

Trials & Blessings: Kade's loss of vision

Kade after his eye surgery.
We were just in time to get the first Valley snow - ahhhhhhhh! This is why we live in St. George. It was stressful to not have the roads plowed with so much snow, but with many prayers on the way we made it safe.
Kade has to keep his head down and forward while his eye heals. He put his head up a bit for the picture, but he watched many movies on the computer with his head down. Kari loves sharing the ear buds with dad - she thinks they are so cool!

The story:

On Thursday, October 30^th, Kade woke up without any vision in his left eye. By the time I got home from school his vision had not changed so we got him into any optometrist that we could. The regular optometrist sent him right over to the Richens Eye Center to be seen by Dr. Richens, an Ophthalmologist. She diagnosed him as having advanced Diabetic Retinopathy in both eyes, his left eye had hemorrhaged and there was a pool of blood in the back and lower part of his left eye. She called the Moran Eye Center at the U of U in Salt Lake and scheduled Kade to have surgery for the following Tuesday.

Kade has had juvenile onset diabetes for almost 26 years. He has had an eye exam every year and they never told us he had Diabetic Retinopathy. The surgeon, Dr. Teske, at the Moran Eye Center said he had been neglected during his yearly exams because this could have been diagnosed earlier and the hemorrhage could have been prevented. *Make sure you go to a good optometrist that will really check your eye’s health, not just your glasses prescription!

There are two types of Diabetic Retinopathy, Kade has both. One affects the macula, which is the part of your eye that allows you to see details to thread a needle, see details on someone’s face, read, etc. The other type affects your peripheral vision. To sum up, Kade’s natural born veins in his eyes look like sausage links. They should be smooth like a marble wall, but they have blockages built up from his blood sugar being too high all the time. Because of this his eye sent signals to his brain to build more veins to get more blood to his eye. These new veins are terrible because they are thin, weak, and leak blood all the time. Then, one of his natural born veins hemorrhaged, causing the pool of blood that was blocking his retina from seeing anything.

On Halloween, Friday October 31^st, Kade received an injection in his eye of Lucentis; it is used for Macular Degeneration and Cancer. It costs $2,000.00 per shot and is to stop the bleeding in the eye. It is kind of still experimental although they have been using it for five years now, so they don’t accept insurance. This shot would make the surgery go better because it would decrease the bleeding in his eye.

Kade and I went to the Moran Eye Center on Monday, November 3^rd to see Dr. Teske, the surgeon. They told us what would happen in the surgery and took lots of pictures of both Kade’s eyes. On Tuesday, November 4^th Kade had his left eye operated on. They put in a little light on the inside of his eye, towards his nose. They made some incisions and cut out the vitreous fluid – the jelly like substance in the eye. Then they removed the blood from his eye. They lazered out the small peripheral veins in his eye that were causing more damage. This lazering of the smaller weak veins is also suppose to send a signal to the brain to not make any more of these bad weak veins.

The surgery went well except that his retina tried to detach at the end of the surgery (that is a very bad thing = blindness) so they put a gas bubble of air in his eye to hold the retina in place. Kade has had to keep his head forward and down so the bubble stays in the right place. If he lies on his back then the bubble will put pressure on the lens of his eye and cause a cataract plus the retina will detach. He can’t do anything strenuous, not even lift up our 24 lb. 1-year old, Kiera. I don’t think he feels bad at all that he can’t change any diapers or do any cleaning. He does really have a hard time restraining himself from playing with the girls. Kya, (2-years old & definitely a daddy’s girl) will lie on the floor and cry that dad can’t hold her. Kari wants him to swing her and wrestle – yes, they all wrestle with dad, even mom.

Yesterday we went to the doctor for a check-up and found out that the healing is slow going because of Kade’s diabetes and the fact that he is so near sighted (this means his eye is longer and it is easier for the retina to detach). His retina has a “horse shoe tear”, but it will heal and that is good. The bad news is that it will probably take 6 – 8 weeks to heal! We were originally told 2 weeks. This means he can’t see to work, drive, or help with the kids. We are hoping they were just giving the worst case scenario and that it will heal faster. Kade says the only thing he can see out of his left eye is the outline of the air bubble. It is getting smaller, which is what needs to happen before he can see again. On the 19^th of November he will have a dye injection so they can see the veins in both his eyes and how they look at that point. He will also have his right eye operated on to prevent it from hemorrhaging.

We will be thrilled when this trial is over and life can get back to being more normal and fun. So – that is the trial part, now for the blessings. We have felt the prayers of family and friends and we appreciate them so much! Our families have been so supportive in taking care of our three girls while we were in Salt Lake for the surgery and then when I had to go back to work. We are hoping this trial turns into a blessing because it is a reality check on Kade’s health. This looks like what is needed to help Kade change his eating habits and take care of himself better. I will take a diabetes class to know how to help Kade better with testing, etc. We hope to prevent any other bad effects from his diabetes.

Halloween Princesses

Kari is Aurora (Sleeping Beauty, although Kya says "Sleeping Boody" which is even more cute).
She really liked this flower.
Kiera is trying to help Kya with her shoes. Kya loves shoes - total girl!
Kiera is Belle and we even kept the ribbon on her head for most of the night.
Kya is Snow White. She loves it when we gasp as she (Snow White) goes to eat an apple. "No, Snow White! Don't eat the apple!) Kya says her full name is "Kyandra Snow White Cheesman".

The girls had a blast being the princesses, especially Kari and Kya. They even wore the wigs. They were the most excited about getting to wear make-up and glitter (compliments of Grandma Cheesman - she got them a whole set of fun make-up). Halloween was lots of fun - we love Halloween!