Well, Its been a little bit since i posted. Mainly due to the fact that nothing of any major interest has happened.

Caitlyn has been growing well, Had a visit to the doctors for usual checkup - ALL clear.

Today we had the 2nd attempt at fitting her prosthetic eyes and well.. She took them well.

She looks so different with them in. It is actually quite scary to see them as i am used to her normal eyes.

Will post pics once i am able to get some really good ones.

UPDATE: have posted 1 pic so far - Click link

Well it is with Sadness and Joy that we said goodbye to Elizabeth Bates for the next 12 months or so. Elizabeth is on Maternity Leave ready for the birth of her little bundle of joy.

We all wish her the best and hope that all goes well. We are expecting pics of course from her and that in the future we can catch up with her again. Caitlyn will continue to grow not only in her knowledge but her strengths of her other senses.

Again, Good luck with everything Elizabeth. We will miss you for the next 12 months.

We had the first attempt at fitting Caitlyns new Prosthetic eyes today. The left one was quite easy however she wasn't impressed at all that we where doing things with her right eye.

This is the eye that from birth she had a minor infection in. The Doctor thinks that she is very protective of that eye cause we had to always clean it for the first few weeks after her birth.

We have to start simply touching the eye and opening the eye lids etc to get her used to it.

Second attempt will be in 6 weeks.

Well the day after the Hospital visit and we look back over what happened yesterday. It was a very long day for us all. Caitlyn was an absolute angel. She had fallen asleep sunday night at about 11pm. We couldn't give her anything to eat or drink after 2am. By 7am she finally woke up after the trip up to Brisbane. She had a bit of a grump and grizzle about 8ish but soon forgot that she hadn't eaten yet. 8:30ish they took her down for the surgery. She was back on the ward by about 10:30ish. By THEN she was hungry.

We just received the notification for Caitlyns first moulding for conformers. To do this she will be put under a full anaethstetic (not sure how to spell that one!!).

It is Monday morning (8th September) at 7am.

I have been told of a post on Real Live Preacher relating back to my posting of Caitlyn reaching 1 year of age.

It has really made me realise how friends have helped not only myself but my whole family thru the struggles we have had over the last year. RLP is on the other side of the world however their support has been felt here. The number of visits to Caitlyns-story.com has increased in volume whenever a posting has appeared on RLP.

It also shows how a small ask of a friend certainly gets around to assist people in need.

Well, the cleanup from the combined birthday parties is still on-going. Caitlyn and Andrew had a combined birthday party yesterday. Quite a few people showed up and it was a rather enjoyable day. The biggest problem now is the left-over meals etc we will have to go thru.

I will post a few pics here in the next few days. Wasn't able to take many pics as things where always happening. Hopefully some of the others who attended might have one or two pics as well.

Found a great list of links for carers to access information.

NCCP

This is a national service available to anyone who is a carer.

This is something that certainly wouldn't get a lot of coverage on any media but i believe that it should. Two Australian researchers are going to implant Australia's first bionic eye.

The technology is very similar to that used by the cochlear implant for the hearing impaired.

It is by no means a totally viable replacement for human eyes at this point. It is very low resolution and definately not a 6 million dollar man bionic.

Found this story regarding a Guy in the United States and his Guide Dog. Thought it would be good to share.

Blind Lawyer perseveres after Dog's death