Aubrey's Big Adventure

Recently, our club was approached by a local mom asking for financial assistance to help her three year old daughter who was diagnosed with Intermittent Exotropia and required eye surgery to prevent vision loss.  

Here's her story....   
This is Aubrey.  She's three year's old and loves pink, bunny blankets, and playing with baby dolls. She is active in ballet and is a kind, snuggly little girl.  A year ago, while driving into town for hot chocolate and coffee with her mom, it was noticed that her left eye was looking out the window while her right eye was looking back at the rear view mirror.  A trip to the eye doctor diagnosed her with Intermittent Exotropia which means that her eyes drift outward.  

Over the last few weeks, Aubrey started to complain about seeing "two daddies."  A call to Children's Hospital had her packing to go south to Seattle sooner than originally scheduled.  An eye exam was scheduled and here's where Aubrey's Big Adventure begins.  

Aubrey takes a plane ride:  

At the exam with her Lion stuffed animal.  Lions stand for strength and courage and little Aubrey will need both in the coming months as she faces her surgery and recovery.  

Even though her her eyes might be going in opposite directions and appear to be getting worse, her vision is good and the exotropia can be fixed by removing layers of eye tissue, disconnecting the muscle, and then reattaching.  

After a three and a half hour eye exam, an eye patch was put in place.  

Suzan had this to say about Aubrey's Big Adventure:  
Aubrey and I traveled down to Children’s Hospital in Bellevue to meet with Dr. Francine M. Baran to learn more about Aubrey’s condition and her surgical needs.  At the appointment we learned that Aubrey has normal vision for her age.  She is however very right eye dominate.  In one of the photos above they patched her eye for a while to break up the dominance so they could measure her right eye in terms of how many prisms her right eye turns.  In January 2014 she was at a 10 prism distance in both eyes about 30% of the time.  Fast forward a year she has gone out to a 30 70% which requires eye muscle surgery.  We felt that her outward turn was getting worse in the last month and found out at the appointment that it has and she is now between a 40-45 90% of the time.  We also learned that beside an outward turn she is also experiences a vertical up and down error as well.   Good news is that we are scheduled for her first surgery March 23^rd.  We will be seen again for an evaluation with a surgical specialist on the 17^th of March.  We will need to stay in the Seattle area from March 23^rd to April 1^st.   If everything goes well we be able to return home.   She will them be see again in two months to evaluate the success of her surgery and decide what the next step in her treatment will be and if she will need another surgery.

A very special thanks for the support!!!!  We are huge lion fans and tell everyone of your kindness and generosity to our Aubie. 

Suzan

Here we are, Lion Mike N. presenting a check from the Mendenhall Flying Lions to Suzan and Sloan for $3,000 to assist with Aubrey's expenses.  The Joint Sight Committee also committed $1,000.  

Please keep  Aubrey and her family in your thoughts during this Big Adventure.  

And this is why we do what we do.... We'll share updates as we get them. 

We Serve!
Lion Nancy