Britton's Eye

Word travels really fast and we are getting lots of questions, so I thought I would post on the blog to let everyone know that Britton is just fine ... after a visit to a specialist, we know that his eyes are perfect. Thank the Lord! If you don't know the story ... I was looking through some photos last week and ran across this one:

I had seen it before and never thought anything of the strange white eye. But, looking at it again, triggered something I had heard on the news a while back -- that a white pupil can be a symptom of an aggressive form of cancer found in babies. I immediately looked through Britton's huge file of pictures and found 7 others with a white pupil, some on the left eye, some on the right. Danny had seen the news story too, so he didn't think I was crazy when I called to tell him what I found. We immediately called Danny's ophthalmologist and got into see him that day (bless that dear doctor!). He looked at Britton's eyes (as best he could look into a squirmy baby's eyes) and said that he did not see any sign of retinoblastoma, but that he wanted to refer us to a retina specialist just to make sure. We had to wait 3 days to see the specialist, but the prevailing wisdom (at least in my book) was that if a tumor was large enough to show up in a photograph (thus creating a white eye), it would have been big enough for the doctor to have seen it. We really were quite confident that Britton's eyes were fine, but we were anxious for the specialist to give him a clean bill of health. When we went to the retina doc last Thursday, the worst part was them having to dilate Britton's eyes, and wait, then dilate them again, and wait, and wait. The poor folks in that tiny waiting room had to listen to Britton squeal and babble for a good hour. We finally saw the doc and showed him all the pictures of Britton's white eyes, and he immediately said, "I know exactly what it is", but he checked his eyes anyway, and said (much to our excitement) that "everyone should have retinas as healthy as Brittons"! Britton actually sat still for this doc, b/c the doc had this large space-age-looking contraption on his head, and it sure got his attention. So, why are his eyes showing up white? In a typical photo taken in low lighting with a flash, the pupils would typically show up with a red glow ("red eye") -- the flash bounces off of the retinas and creates the red glow. Red eye indicates healthy retinas. In this same setting, it's possible (as in Britton's case 8 times) for the eye to be at just the perfect angle, for the flash to bounce off the optic nerve instead of the retina and come back as a white glow. The doc said the pictures would be more concerning if the white eye showed up in the same eye in every pic, or if they showed up in both eyes in the same picture. He said, however, that if any photo of a young child has a white eye, it must be checked out immediately. So, we did the right thing. This visit also put to rest any concern that his eyes took a hit from the lack of blood and oxygen he experienced at birth. We are so grateful for the good report. Thanks, friends, for your prayers and concern once again for a little boy!


White eye reflex in Britton's right eye. The top picture shows it in his left eye.