Oh, I See

It was back to the doctor for Jordan today. It's been so long (10 days) I forgot until we got there how anxious I get taking her to a new & different doctor, especially one with "genetic" in his title. His specialty, actually, was Genetic Opthamology, and Jordan was a superstar. She let him shine lights in her eyes, pull on her eyelids, and only fussed a little with the eye drops.

The eyes can often lead to diagnoses of genetic or metabolic diseases, particularly if there is a deformation on the retina or the macula. And as an extra bonus, Jordan has one very small, perfectly centered cataract right in the center of each eye. We've had these evaluated by a Pediatric Opthamologist twice already, but we were hoping that the genetic opthamologist would be able to see a specific pattern in the cataracts and be able to link it to a disease or group of diseases.

On the vision front, Jordan's eyes are perfect. She should be able to see just fine, so we have hope that she's just delayed with her vision, as she is with everything else. There's always the possibility that she has cortical vision impairment (her brain doesn't process the things she sees properly), but at this point we have no way to evaluate that. Only time will tell.

But, as usual, he had nothing to add. He referred to himself as useless -- although that's being a bit tough. I guess we know some things she doesn't have (for now, they may not have developed yet because she is so young). His conclusion is that the cataracts are so general they could be from a genetic disease or a brain insult in utero. Same old same old.

Driving home from OHSU Devon & I got to see the new tram* being tried out. It wasn't even unwrapped, and there were 2 people riding on the top & side of it. I hope they had their OSHA safety gear, because they were WAYYYYY up there, and near all those wires, too. I bet the view of Portland was fantastic. I'm definitely going to take a ride when it gets up and going.

On the home front, we got a door! Yes, we actually got the front door. Hey, baby steps I guess. Someday. Perhaps I really do loose my mind every October when we start the remodelling thing. I just know that I'd get fired if I stalled on jobs and ignored my clients the way contractors do, and this is a contractor we actually like. It could be worse, I guess.

*This has been in the Portland news for a couple of years -- a tram linking "the hill" to the waterfront, where OHSU is expanding. The city is picking up the tab as part of its waterfront renewal project. The cost started at $15 million, but is now around $57 million. Yikes! That's some BAD estimating!!