I found this video today on youtube of a Pianist from Japan who has microphthalmia same as Caitlyn.

Please enjoy watching this video as much as i did.

Further to this i found an article relating to his performance here. Please read HERE for further information

Thought this might be an interesting read. Definately shows how the support of your parents either allow you to proceed well or be held back especially when you have a disability of one sort or another.

Boy with Anophthalmia

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

I can't believe it is almost 1 year since the birth of my special little girl. There are a lot of things that have happened in the year and only some of them have been posted here. I really do need to thank a lot of people who over the past 12 months have provided the support network that both my Wife and I have required to get thru as we have.

Firstly I obviously need to thank my Wife who without her none of the joy and happiness of Caitlyn would have been possible. She has been beside me all the way as I have been beside her. Not saying it has been easy in any way. We have both at times blamed ourselves and each other for Caitlyns condition. We also have asked on a number of occassions why this wasn't detected in all the scans we had prior to her birth. This is something that we have found appears to be a common question from others affected by Microph/Anophthalmia.

Secondly I need to thank my direct Family. Their support and encouragement has not only allowed us to get thru all the hurdles but allowed us all to grow as a Family. It certainly has brought out the needs of each person within themselves. It shows how hard it is to accept yourself for how you are. People often Judge each other by their first impression or appearance. With Caitlyn we have all had to learn how to judge people by how they react to you rather than how they look to you. Vision Impairment has show us that sometimes as a Human Being we often make the mistake of judging someones appearance firstly before we know anything about that person. Watching Caitlyn judge people by touch, smell and hearing has taught me to value what we do have.

Thirdly, Several people have been of a great support simply by knowing that they are there. Tim and Judith from Jethro Consultants as well as the entire network of readers from Real Live Preacher who supported us not only with their words of support on their websites and by email but also by their prayers and thoughts for all of us.

Lastly, and certainly not least of all, I need to thank my friends who have helped in any way possible. We also need to thank the fantastic people at Narbethong Special School, RIDBC, Vision Australia, Guide Dogs and Seeing Eyes Dogs. The network of all these specialists and friends has helped us in many ways. Our next biggest hurdle is to start the construction of our new house. It has been specially designed and built on a family members property to allow us to provide the best environment for Caitlyn. It is quiet yet not too far from main roads etc to allow us to get her to her hospital and specialists visits. We will have specially designed sensory gardens as well as marked pathways and fully fenced yard so as to ensure her security and safety. I have designed and will implement a complete video surveillance system so that she is able to walk around the yard and yet be watched at all times by my wife and myself.

At no point have I ever asked for support in the past however due to recent price increases and decrease in our general family earnings i am asking that if anyone can donate to help keep Caitlyns-story.com going i would really appreciate it. This website has been not only a source of information for myself and my family but it is now also beeing used as a reference by many other families who are affected by this condition.

Caitlyns-story.com will continue to grow in the future but may require additional funding options such as additional advertising banners. At this point i would rather not put them on until absolutely required. If you are able to help with any donations please register yourself and make a comment here for this post. I will then contact you personally to arrange for the paypal donation details to be passed onto you.

Please also keep an eye out for a post i will put here shortly. I am about to upload a video sequence that i have made. It is a collection of the photos we have taken of Caitlyn over the last year. Please once this post is only feel free to pass this onto your friends as well.

As the title suggests.. WHERE DO I START!!!!

Today was Huge

We had our usual weekly (and unfortunately last) visit to Narbethong. As of next term, we will be visiting the Gold Coast based group on Thursdays instead of Narbethong on Tuesdays. Caitlyn had a very big day there. Must say a quick thank you and Goodbye to all the staff of Narbethong, From time to time we will try to visit and say Hi.

I also have had a chat with Jim from Narbethong. He is one of the Teaching staff there and along with Kerry, they have asked me to assist as a consultant on the new look Narbethong website. Once it is completed i will post the Link here to allow everyone to look at it.

Next thing that happened today was nothing short of amazing. We met a fantastic boy (14 years old) who has Anophthalmia. He introduced himself to Caitlyn and there is no real way to express the feeling that I had as a parent to see my daughter able to interact with someone who has the same condition. You could see the look on both their faces. It looked to me like Caitlyn knew he had a similar condition. Hopefully we will be able to catch up again with this inspirational young man (as the term boy really doesn't suit his maturity) and the rest of his family.

We got to meet the Specialists today. Our doctor is one of the leading specialists in the field on child vision impairment. His staff are nothing short of amazing. Their care and compassion not only to Caitlyn but towards us cannot be expressed easily. You could sense that they where 110% ready to help us in any way possible. I have asked them if possible and able to, could they please supply any additional information for this website.

Doctor advised us that they will need to do a full inspection of Caitlyns Eye socket and the "Globe" and muscles that are there. This will be completed under sedation so as to not stress Caitlyn out too much. They will also be taking a mould of the eye socket in preperation for her first prosthetic.

Well needless to say it was a long day. We left home at 7:30am and didn't get home till nearly 4:40pm. Caitlyn, Mum and Dad are totally exhausted so will call it a day i think.

Well tommorow is the big day. After our usual visit to Narbethong we will be going to see the specialists for Caitlyn. The visit is at the Royal Childrens Hospital in Brisbane.

Hopefully we will get more answers from the doctors about what we can do for Caitlyn and possibly what caused her condition.

Once we have been we will post more information.

I found another story about a young girl with Microphthalmia. Thought it would be good to share with everyone.

http://geelen.com.au/stories-of-eye-loss/microphthalmia-no-more-little-wink/

I just found a very interesting article that i thought i should share. It is very close to my heart in a lot of ways. The similarities to Caitlyn and our own experiences are very scary.

This article "Out of the Darkness" is on Readers Digest. Please read and understand how this relates to us.

Shortly Caitlyn will be starting this long road. We will be seeing specialists on the 1st April. This is the first of many visits ahead.

This is a reply to a posting I made on the Yahoo Group mentioned before. It is from another parent who's child is affected by Microphthalmia

Hello Rohan-