Optomistic Ophthalmologist

Last Monday Joe had his first appointment with the ophthalmologist at Riley. He has had his vision tested before by an optometrist but this is the first time he's seen someone specifically looking for retino blastoma (eye tumors) which his chromosomal abnormality puts him at risk for. It was actually a reassuring visit. The doctor said that kids who have retino blastoma are born with it and by Joe's age it should be visable. His eyes look fine and she says that she is confident that he probably will not develop any tumors. We will continue to get regular eye checkups to make sure if anything would develop that we would catch it early. But as he gets older the risk for tumors goes down significantly.
Also Joe has been increasingly active lately. His mobility has grown so much in just the last few weeks. He still is not quite crawling, but he is rolling alot, rotating himself around and transitioning from belly to sitting and back again often. He has even been doing some scooting around on his bottom. His reach and interest in things around him has increased as well.
It was only a short time ago that I could set him on the floor to play and half an hour later he'd still be in the same spot. Now he roams all around the room in a short time, getting into this and that. We've had to pay far more attention to what is on the floor now that he is getting around so well. His therapists are very excited about the things they have been seeing as they work with him lately. We are all very thankful to see this kind of progress from our special little man.