I turned on the kitchen light and that’s when I saw it. My legs buckled under me. Can you get scared at the sight of your own child? It’s just a baby potty. A cheerful and resolute boy who – until the unlucky evening – was a healthy and developing child.
– And it’s still gorgeous. I will do everything to make him have a good childhood and grow up to be a happy person – says Barbara, the mother of two and a half years old Oliwier.
– That evening I saw his cat’s eye. The right pupil was phosphorescent with an unnatural white reflex. For a moment, my son looked like a character from a horror movie. I was scared, but I knew immediately what was wrong with him. A few days later, my fears were confirmed. My son fell ill with a malignant tumor in childhood: retinoblastoma. A tumor grew in his right eye and appeared as a phosphorescent light in the pupil. It has probably been developing in the eye for a good few months, but in order to notice an unnatural flash, the light must fall on the eye in the right intensity and at the right angle – says the mother. – That August evening I lit a halogen lamp over the kitchen counter. My little son was sitting at the cupboard on the potty. The beam of light from the lamps brought a strange reflex from my son’s eye. The next day we visited an ophthalmologist with him, but he did not find anything dangerous. This could be the start of cataracts, he said. However, I had a headache when I heard a story about a child with retinoblastoma. She fled from memory and did not let go. We went with Oliwierek to a pediatric ophthalmologist, and he had no doubts: This is a malignant tumor of the eye, retinoblastoma. Treatment needs to be started. As soon as possible”. I was shocked. My child has cancer. Hearing the diagnosis is probably the hardest moment. Then action begins.
Retinoblastoma, also known as retinoblastoma, is classified as a malignant intraocular neoplasm. In most cases, the disease affects only one eye and may or may not be inherited. Neoplastic changes appear in children up to the age of five. It is diagnosed extremely rarely in adults.
Basia and Jacek’s son began treatment in Kraków Prokocim. First, cycles of chemotherapy, then radiotherapy, i.e. the implantation of a radioactive plate in the eye, was considered. The problem is that the child’s entire body suffers during invasive chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The therapy is also not intended to save the eye in the first place. First of all, it is to eliminate the tumor and prevent metastasis, that is … it is about saving lives. Therefore, despite the onerous treatment, the eye often cannot be saved and is removed.
Both in Krakow and later, at the Children’s Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw, we had good medical care – says Basia. – However, it cannot be denied that treatment in Poland is different than in centers more specialized in the treatment of retinoblastoma, e.g. in England. What I heard in hospital waiting rooms about cases of children with retinoblastoma. Some parents said straightforward to fly to London with their son. Because there they will try to save the eye, not just fight the tumor. I don’t want to judge anyone, but it’s a huge dilemma for parents of children with retinoblastoma. On the one hand, they are afraid for the child’s life, about metastases, on the other hand, we want our child not to lose an eye! We have started a campaign of collecting money for the treatment of a child abroad. We went to the clinic in England for the first time in mid-January this year. The son was qualified. The first chemotherapy in the UK, administered through the femoral artery, then pumped through the heart into the ophthalmic artery, and from there straight into the tumor, yielded an unexpectedly good result. The tumor is dead, we heard, but the side effects of the surgery were painful. My son was suffering. He had an exophthalmos and a sharp cross strabismus. The eyelid on the sick eye closed and stopped working. In CZD, tumor cells scattered over the vitreous body of the eye were detected. These also had to be liquidated. Meanwhile, the son has a specific structure of blood vessels. There was a problem with the insertion of the catheter into the ophthalmic artery, and most of the second chemicals went to the eyelid. There was also a third chemotherapy treatment, but the tumor did not respond to it anymore. It grew back. During our next visit, a dramatic but inevitable decision was made for us – enucleation, i.e. the removal of the eye. This word did not pass through my throat for a long time.
In order to confirm the diagnosis for retinoblastoma, fundus examination, ultrasound and imaging tests (MRI and tomography) are performed. In some cases, histopathological tests or intraocular biopsy are used. Early recognition of the nature of the tumor enables its complete cure with the help of chemotherapy, radiotherapy or laser excision. It happens that in sick children, retinoblastoma is misdiagnosed as cataracts, strabismus or secondary glaucoma. When the retinoblastoma is well advanced, the eyeball can rupture. In some cases, enucleation, i.e. removal of the eye, occurs. An untreated cancer can also lead to metastasis and death.
Little Oliwier is currently two and a half years old. It is the third month since the eye removal surgery in England. The child has already adapted to wearing a prosthesis. He corrects it with a finger and talks to his mother. And when will you take out your eyelet? After an unsuccessful second chemotherapy in England, the boy had so-called lazy eyelid. He didn’t open his right eye at all.
– His eyelid is slowly starting to work – says his mother – so there is hope that he will do without plastic surgery. We exchange prostheses for Olinek in England. They are acrylic, of much higher quality than glass ones in Poland, reimbursed by the National Health Fund. Unfortunately, they need to be replaced frequently as they grow small and the cost of one is around £ 10. My son is just beginning to realize that there is something wrong with his right eye. We explain to him a lot that the eye they cut out was sick and now he has a different, but healthy one. He doesn’t seem to realize yet that his eyesight isn’t there! Fortunately, the healthy left eye can see well. I never thought my baby would have cancer. The older son is healthy. I want to sensitize parents of young children to watch their children carefully. Retinoblastoma is tricky because it often develops asymptomatically. You have to be lucky to catch a disturbing glint in the eye and not to underestimate it (which happens sometimes to ophthalmologists!). The mother of a cured XNUMX-year-old recently called me and said that she was disturbed by the gleam in the child’s eye visible in the developed photos. When she went to the doctors with these photos, most mistook her for an oversensitive mom. Finally, she found an ophthalmologist who took her concerns seriously and did the appropriate tests for the child. The diagnosis was unequivocal; retinoblastoma. Treatment commenced in a nearly four-month-old infant. Effect? The boy is now XNUMX years old and completely cured. The sick eye was saved.
Tekst: Joanna Weyna Szczepańska
koz olib tashlangan endi unga yangi koradigan kozni qoysa boladimi
kimyo terapiyalarni foidasi bormi