This past week has been a hard one for our family, we've all been affected by the events that have taken place. Let's start at the beginning.
Last Monday (October 15, 2012) I took my five girls and myself up to the Flu Shot Clinic here in town, just like every year for the past 6 winters. I filled in the required paper work and then off to get the shots we went. This year my kids were thrilled to discover that instead of a shot this year there was a nasal mist being offered to children over the age of 2. Yay they all thought, and me too I guess. Within 1/2 an hour of being in there we were on our way home, all done - way easier than in previous years.
Tuesday evening Rylee (age 7) started not feeling so great, I wasn't home so I can't say exactly what her issues were but Wednesday morning she still wasn't well, she felt dizzy and sick to her stomach. I kept her home from school. Later that morning a friend of mine called me to say that Aylish (age 4) was complaining that her eye hurt and that she was hiding it away from the light. When she brought her home to me and I looked at her eyes I knew something was wrong. Her eyes weren't lining up. I know her cool party trick is being able to cross one eye and this was similar but not normal. I immediately took her to the clinic. While we were at the clinic waiting to see the doctor Rylee began crying and screaming that her eyes hurt and that it was too bright. By the time I got her into the bathroom where it was dark she had passed out. Brief but scary. We stayed in the dark until they moved us into the dr room. We kept the lights off in there as both girls were very light sensitive.
Dr Steed came in to see the girls. He first checked over Aylish and there was an obvious stumped look from him. He went and called the specialist in Lethbridge and had an appointment for us for first thing after lunch. He then turned his attention to Rylee who was sitting beside me. He shone his little light in to her eyes and again she started crying and put her head down on my lap, the lights were hurting her pretty bad - Rylee's a pretty tough kid. The doctor believed Rylee's to be viral and told her to take it easy and rest. She is still a week later having dizzy spells and is still light sensitive from time to time, though her symptoms have lessened.
As for Aylish and her 'lazy eyes', they're still lazy. She has been to see the specialist 3 times now and has an appointment to have an MRI done tomorrow morning to make sure there is nothing more serious going on. We are all nervous and praying for a normal outcome. In the meantime the specialist now believe that there is a link between this vaccine the girls received and their complications with the vision. Dr Novak and Dr Heyns from Lethbridge have had 3 children in with similar complications following this nasal mist vaccine in the past week. I am so angry. All I want is for my little girls to return to good health and put all this behind us.
I am very grateful for the love and support family and friends have been to us through this difficult time, I pray that it'll soon be back to normal. I love my little girls and would do anything for them. Right now I'm relying on faith that they will be healed.
