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But we are proud to say that Abby contributed 213 entries already.
I expect, like me, many of you woke up today with resolutions and big plans to achieve them. As one of my own New Year resolutions is to maintain this blog regularly, I thought sharing some tips I’ve found helpful would be a great way to begin. I’ll be using them to stay on track with my goal, and I hope they’ll help turn your own New Year Resolutions into goals you can truly accomplish in 2016!
We have some exciting news to share with you, and we hope you will be excited too! On 1st September, Daisy’s Eye Cancer Fund will become World Eye Cancer Hope, WE C Hope for short. Our vision and mission remain unchanged – to build best care for all children, survivors and families affected by retinoblastoma.
“I have retinoblastoma”. Medical professionals would correct me – “you had retinoblastoma – now you are cancer-free”. But am I really free from cancer?
So many days I feel I am banging my head against a wall, watching children die who could have been saved with clear information, simple surgery and emotional support. But the knowledge of how life could be made better for each child, family and survivor is a strong motivational pull. The suffering that can be mitigated with relatively small resources. Somehow when I think I have no more energy, I mine a new seam from within, and from the encouragement and kindness of others, and I move forward, one step at a time.
A positive, open relationship between parents and the child’s medical team is vital throughout treatment and beyond. A therapeutic alliance requires good communication, mutual trust, respect and care, as well as knowledge and skills to provide high quality medical care.
Intraocular retinoblastoma is classified and staged to help doctors describe the degree of cancer in a child’s eye, determine best treatment options, define potential for cure / eye salvage, and compare impact of different therapies. Each eye is classified to define potential for safely saving the eye / vision. Stage of bilateral Rb is based on the worst affected eye, as an indicator of risk to the child’s life. When an eye might be classified into one of two groups, the higher risk group should be selected. This reduces risk of eye loss or life threatening relapse due to under-treatment.
Taking photographs to check for red eye reflex is one of the best ways parents can detect early signs of serious eye disease in young children. Here we explain red eye photography and the simple technique all parents should know to check for healthy red reflex in children.
