No parent ever wants to imagine their child going through serious surgery as a baby.
Sarah Bowers of New Zealand was faced with that reality when her infant son, Mason, was 16 weeks old. The devoted mom was looking back at photos she had taken of Mason by the fire when she noticed a strange "golden glow" in her son's left eye.
On the Facebook page Little Mason's Journey, Sarah explained:
Mason’s journey began on a Monday night like every other. After enjoying a nice warm bath in front of the fire, Mason endured the usual photoshoot I often put him through, only this time I noticed he had a ‘golden glow’ in his left eye on all the photos I had taken, I spent the evening concerned about what I had seen as I remembered reading a story while I was pregnant about a little boy called Benjamin Webber and how his mum had noticed the ‘golden glow’ in her sons eye and it led to a 1/100,000 rare disease called Coat’s Disease.
Photos: Sarah Bowers; Facebook / Little Mason’s Journey
[H/T: Daily Mail]
The next day Mason went to his GP and she immediately was alarmed by what she saw in Mason’s eye and phoned to have him referred to the eye specialist.
The next morning I took Mason to the eye specialist and after examination the eye specialist confirmed that Mason was in fact completely blind in his left eye, I was completely shocked and devastated to learn this news as other than a staph infection in that eye he had never had any signs of being blind, his pupil dilates, the eye follows things and responds to light etc.. then the eye specialist went on mentioning words like Coat's Disease and even worse Retinoblastoma (a rare eye cancer that is found in young children).
We were then flown up to Auckland the next morning to see an eye doctor who had dealt with cases of Retinoblastoma and other eye conditions. Mason was put under a general anesthetic so he could be examined, it was confirmed from this that he has a detached retina and is 100% blind in his left eye and has no hope of recovering any sight to the eye.
However the results from the examination were not common of those seen in patients with Retinoblastoma so the doctor was more confident that this my not be the case with Mason.
Unfortunately because of the uncertainty and the fact that the eye had been deemed 'useless' the doctor advised our best and safest choice for Mason would be to remove his eye, in doing so they remove the risk of whatever is wrong with the eye of spreading and also they can put the eye under a microscope and properly diagnose Mason.
Mason was diagnosed with Coats' disease, a rare disease that causes blindness.
According to the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, "Coats' disease is caused by a problem with the arteries and veins (blood vessels) inside the eye that provide blood and oxygen to the retina."
Eventually, in August 2015, Mason underwent surgery to have his left eye removed.
Mason's surgery went well, and he seemed happy as he recovered.
Since Mason didn't have vision in his left eye to begin with, he made the transition to having no eye on that side quickly.
Later, the adorable baby was fitted with a prosthetic eye.
It took Mason some time to adjust to the prosthetic — his mom admits he would rub it and it fell out once in a while.
When he was really little, he even tried to eat it!
Now, Mason is almost 3, happy and healthy, and thriving with his prosthetic eye. His mom tells LittleThings that he's "becoming aware of his different eye" and "he tells us when he wants it in or out."
He also recently became a big brother when his mom gave birth to a little girl!
Mom Sarah is now speaking out about Coats' disease and encouraging other parents to pay attention if they ever notice a glow in their children's eyes.
Sarah raises awareness for Know the Glow, a nonprofit that helps identify "preventable glow-related childhood eye diseases."
According to their website, Know the Glow's mission is to "raise public awareness for glow-related eye diseases and drive action to prevent childhood blindness."
Sarah says looking back at Mason's photos, it's easy to see the glow now, but she never noticed it at the time.
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