Diagnosis: Amblyopia
During December of 2019 we started to notice that our two and a half year old son Lachlan’s eye had a slight turn. We didn’t think too much of this and decided to just watch it until after the Christmas holiday.
But in January, I took a photo of Lachlan on his first day of child care and noticed a white glow in the pupil of the same eye that had the misalignment. It got my attention, but once again I didn’t think too much of it as I was not aware of the Glow or that it could be an indication of a serious disease. But over the coming days, we noticed the misalignment rapidly increased.
We also noticed that all the photos we were taking had a glow in them! I was now alarmed and began to investigate. I did some research on a “white glow” and immediately my heart stopped as everything I was reading was telling me this was a sign of cancer of the eye. During my search, I also found the KNOW THE GLOW awareness campaign. I asked this group for some advice. I am so happy I did because the members from the group walked us through the steps for getting the correct diagnosis.
We quickly set up an appointment with an ophthalmologist. We were told at this appointment that Lachlan has amblyopia, a misalignment of the eyes. This is still a serious eye problem but he did not have cancer, or one of the more serious conditions that could present with the Glow. We were very relieved. We have started to patch his eye and are waiting on his prescription glasses. We hope the early diagnosis and treatment will help correct the poor vision he does have in the right eye.
We hope that by sharing our story we can help another family recognize and act when they see the Glow. And we want to help others to understand that the Glow does not always mean cancer. We have learned that there are more than 20 different conditions that can present with the Glow.
We are very thankful for everyone in the Know the Glow Community. We really appreciate all the help and advice we received and are grateful to have Lachlan back on track to healthy vision thanks to recognizing and acting on the Glow.
