360 degree trabeculotomy success - one year later

Today's been a Saturday like any other. I made pancakes for my husband and 17-month old son, I went for a run, we took a family outing to the music store, and at the end of the day there are books, toys and odd bits of breadsticks strewn from one end of our house to the other. It's 19:45 and I'm knackered.

But a year ago today I was wishing for these types of days, where our worries would be centred around how to entertain a toddler vs. whether he'd lose his vision in just the one eye or would it be both.

Today is the one-year anniversary of Aaron's 360 degree trabeculotomy, which for all intents and purposes, has been a success and allows us to have our crazy but ordinary life. Aaron's eyes have gone from cloudy, flat, almost colourless orbs to wild, dancing blueberries, curious, mischievous, missing nothing. Clear.

Glaucoma free eyes 

A year on it is easy to forget that congenital glaucoma is even a thing. We are on bi-annual checkups with Mr. Brookes at Moorfields (as compared to monthly at first) and Aaron seems to have no idea, not of the fact that he was one of the first to have this revolutionary surgery nor of the fact that he's quite famous now, having been featured in everything from case studies to press articles.

Ok it's possible he might think he's a little bit famous

I started this blog as a way to share our journey and what we learned along the way with family, friends and strangers. I've kept it focused to the very niche topic of congenital glaucoma.

I'm never going to have hundreds of thousands of followers and that's ok. It's just that I remember telling Mr. Brookes once that there were NO positive blogs out there about congenital glaucoma and he replied that it's likely because once it's treated, there's not much to say - you go on with life. And that's true, we have gone on and I post once in a blue moon.

But I also remember the desperate feeling I had when I saw NO positive blogs, or saw the blogs that sounded like things had gone mildly ok for the kid with congenital glaucoma and then the posts just...stopped. And I was left wondering 'WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?' (I've never been a 'glass half full' person and having a baby who was 1 in 10,000 hasn't exactly improved that, although I'm working on it. The fact that we have a congenital glaucoma baby whose vision is now 'good enough that he could drive' is definitely something to hang onto).

I digress.

I will keep posting, even if one person per month reads it (even if that's sometimes my aunt), because I've had a few people get in touch with me to find out more, I've seen traffic come in from Russia, China, Sweden, the United States. Other 1 in 10,000's. Other scared parents. I hope this blog continues to help them. And maybe someday it will help Aaron, if he ever wants to know the ins and outs of what happened, how lucky he was and is, and why even ordinary Saturdays are ones to be grateful for.