Fiona and Rob's Eyes

Fiona called last night.  I had almost given up hope as it was long past the time that she normally calls when the phone rang. It was Jane who was very upset and apologetic. Jane had accidently doublebooked some family meetings and the last one had run over and taken the phone time.  She wanted to know if we could talk then or should we just wait a week.  I rounded up the troops, though the littles were not at their best given the hour, and we had  a really good call.

The Great School in the City has been fighting a problem with bedbugs. Because of my line of work I understand that this is not uncommon, (but the personal gross out factor is still really high!).  However part of the treatments meant that a lot of the kids personal belongings had to be disposed of.  Stuffed animals, and paper products if there were high amounts are sadly hiding places for these insidious pests.  Fiona's scrapbook that I have made for her over the years was one of the casualties.  However, Jane is not Amazing Jane for no reason.  She had made a color photocopy of every scrapbook page I ever sent Fiona.  And they have purchased a new scrapbook to put them in.  Additionally, Cousin N. has given Fiona a lot of pictures of extended birth family and she is able to add those as well.  I told Fiona maybe this was one of those weird blessings because I think it is so great that now she has one scrapbook that has all her family and the people who love her in it.

There has also been another pretty significant change for Fiona.  I don't know if it is maturity, a result of our constancy, Jane's work or the med change but I am loving it.  For a long time it was hard for Fiona to think about anyone but herself.  I understand the whys of that.  We now see her act much more age appropriately when other people have birthdays or special days.  She is wanting to give rather than just receive.  She also for the first time last night was able to listen to me tell her about Rob's glaucoma. 

Yesterday was Rob's ocular pressure check and it went great.   I was sharing that with her.  Fiona did not remember my telling her about Rob's glaucoma before so I explained it again to her. For the first time ever she was concerned on his behalf--wanting to know if it was fatal, if he would be all right, and how long he had had this. She wanted to know if it ran in the family and how he got it.  They were all such good questions.  I was able to answer all of those and explained that although we can't cure it, we can manage it and that by following the treatment plan he has done wonderfully for many years.  I compared it to Fiona's diaabetes which is controlled with careful dietary choices. 

At the end of the call she asked what I was going to do when Rob was a grown up if he forgot to take the eye drops.  I jokingly said I would biff him up side the head if he did that and she laughed and said could she do that too because she wanted him to take good care of his eye sight.  It was just so cool to hear her comprehend things so well and to be able to reassure her that things were OK.