Saturday, January 31, 2009

Congenital Cataract (Part 2)

We went to the Aphakic specialist and had my daughter checked. Me and my husband were a little bit nervous since it will be a very serious discussion. He said that it's about time to have lens implant since my daughter is already 4 years old and kid's eyes stops to develop at age 9. According to him my daughter has a complicated case, the diagnosis are miotic pupil, nystagmus and microcornea. There was an inflammation after the cataract surgery and that made the pupil did not develop properly.

The doctor discussed the benefits and risks of having surgery and it scared us. The surgery will be a gamble not just for his team but also for us parents. It may improve or may loss my daughter's vision and it really hurt us so much. The doctor advised to take time and carefully decide on this. He assured us that his team will do everything if in case we decided. If we are not going to have lens implant my daughter will be wearing very thick and heavy eyeglasses all her life. Also there's a possibility that she'll lost her vision anytime in her life because of miotic pupil.

As parents we want the best for our child but how are we going to react if one day she'll say "Mommy it's very dark, I can't see anything". I'm a positive person and has a strong faith in God but I believe that we have to think also other possibilities. I cannot forget the important word the doctor said "acceptance" we have to be ready to everything. We have to be ready whether the surgery will be successful or not.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

My Family (Dec '08)




















Saturday, January 17, 2009

Congenital Cataract

When my second child was 2 weeks old, I noticed that she has a white dot in her both eyes. I asked our pediatrician and we were referred to an ophthalmologist. We were told that it's congenital cataract we were advised to have our daughter undergone a CT scan just to make sure and also to check innermost part of the eyes. After undergoing a CT scan the ophthalmologist confirmed that it's congenital cataract. A congenital cataract is clouding of the lens of the eye that is present at birth (from www.nlm.nih.gov)

We were shocked, I really don't know how it happened. They said that one of the causes is when the mother had or was exposed to a person that has German Measles during pregnancy. We had a computer shop and I was the one who managed it. My husband worked in a software company that time. During pregnancy, I was in the shop the whole day so it's possible that one of the customers had German Measles since in a day we had more that 50 customers renting. We were located in Tondo, Manila. I remembered on the fourth month of my pregnancy I had a fever but I ignored it I didn’t take any medicine. I rested for a day then after that I was ok and came back to work.

My daughter undergone surgery immediately after the doctor confirmed that It’s congenital cataract she wore a +10 eyeglasses after. She had regular eye check up. But sad to say after 2 years her ophthalmologist migrated to United States and he never left the medical records same thing happened to his other patients. We went to different ophthalmologist and search online until we knew about Eye Republic Clinic. We went to Eye Republic Clinic and we met their Pediatric-Ophthalmologist, during examination of her eyes the doctor said that she no longer has the lens. It was removed during her cataract surgery again it’s sad to say that our previous ophthalmologist did not inform us about it. I knew I’m not familiar with the medical terms but doctor could have explained things in layman’s term. I remembered after the surgery the doctor said that in the right time my daughter will have lens implant but he never mentioned that lens has been removed.

Moving forward, the doctor from Eye Republic advised us to have our daughter an eye ultrasound so she would have a clear idea of what is inside the eyes. With the result of the ultrasound, the doctor said that my daughter can have a lens implant so she won’t be wearing a very thick and heavy eye glasses for life. Right now my daughter is wearing +18 eyeglasses and there was a big improvement in her vision. We were referred to an Aphakic specialist who will give us an assurance that we won’t be having any problem after lens implant. Aphakia is the absence of the lens of the eye, due to surgical removal, a perforating wound or ulcer, or congenital anomaly. (by Wikipedia)

To be continued..

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Marriage is not the answer to teenage pregnancy

Traditional Filipino culture , when a woman get’s pregnant, she should be married to the guy who is the father of the child no matter how young she is or unsure of her feelings. It is a big emabarrassment for the family.

I was only 18 and my boyfriend was 19 when I got pregnant to my first child and I was in my second year in college. I talked to him about my pregnancy and he said that nothing to worry about he’ll take care of me and our baby. We were scared we don’t know how are we going to tell to our parents about the problem.

When my Mom knew my pregnacy, I got the normal reaction, she was mad and dissappointed since I am the eldest and haven’t finish school. She want me to get married but I said ‘no’. I knew I was very young and not ready for the responsibility of being a mom and a wife at the same time. There’ll be lots of things that could happen, our feelings to each other might still change. My boyfriend’s parents did not agree too they have the same reason.

After giving birth, my Mom still couldn’t accept she was really hurt. My boyfriend’s Mom took the responsibility of taking care of our child. She wants us to finish school to have an assurance that we’ll be a good provider to our child. We continue our studies, we treated each other like just boyfriend and girlfriend we dated regularly we did not live together. I was a working student then but after paying my school tuition for one semester my Mom talked to me and said to stop working and focus in my studies. We got to see our child during vacations since his parents lived in the province.

We were lucky because somehow we still get to enjoy our teenage years since my boyfriend’s parents took care of our child. But we also had issues while growing up since both of us were not that mature yet. Sometimes he went out with his friends I went out with my friends too but we kept in mind that we both has responsibility to our child. We never talked about being committed to each other formally. We just continued to give respect, care and love for each other. I remember my high school friend said ” do not worry about your child instead think of ways how you can keep him, if you have him you’ll have your child too ” and I hanged on to that.
After we finished our studies and found a job, we decided to get married. Our child was already 5 years old that time. Now we are happpily married with two pretty girls. Im proud to say that we are indeed a good provider.


Getting married is not the answer to early pregnancy. It’s better to wait for the right time, when you’re mature and more establish in life. It maybe embarrassing for others but it’s better to move on and put in mind that you not only need to prepare for your future but for your child, eventually for your own family.