Red eye? Nope, eye cancer

re: Red eye? Nope, eye cancer

Racelh — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 19:20:48 GMT

My niece had retinoblastoma as a baby. They thought it was just lazy eye and made an appointment at Toronto Sick Kids (they live in Toronto). However, being worrisome people, they didn't want to wait the 3-4 months for the appointment and went to the US and paid a doctor to look at her. The doctor sat them down and told them their baby had cancer and that her eye would have to be removed. Next thing they knew, she was having the operation. This is so scary and I remember them looking back at pictures of her as a baby and one of her eyes were white like that. They never knew she was blind in that eye the whole time and that her eye was essentially a tumor. Luckily, all the cancer was removed and none had gotten into her brain, which was a real possibility since she was in stage 4 of 5 of the cancer. She's 5 now and is so beautiful. People should know though, that this is extremely rare.

re: Red eye? Nope, eye cancer

Mom2Two — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 02:48:01 GMT

My mom's neighbor's son had retinoblastoma. He's a high school junior now with a prostethic eye, doing great. But as a teenage babysitter, it was super weird to see him show me his collection of outgrown eyes.

Also, my mom has left TWO comments on this site today and neither have yet to show up. What's up with that?

re: Red eye? Nope, eye cancer

BBBGMOM — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:12:03 GMT

I find this fascinating, too. It happened to the son of a friend of mine. She's a nurse and was startled by the printed photos, aware of the abnormality. She took her boy to a specialist where he was diagnosed with retinoblastoma. He's now eight years old, has a prosthetic eye and is doing great.