Mom issues warning after spotting daughter's cancer symptom on baby monitor
A mom has told how her one-year-old daughter needed her eye removed after she spotted one little detail on their baby monitor.
A mother's intuition has been known to realize things way before healthcare professionals, and it seems like Grace Gravil's eye for her daughter's eye was right all along.
The mom, from the UK, has revealed her daughter's health journey, which resulted in the removal of her eye after seeing something on the monitor whilst the baby was in bed at six months old.
Gravil and her tot, Athena Ingledew, were first told there was nothing to worry about by healthcare professionals, until months later, when Athena's eye began to bulge and cloud over.
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A visit to Scunthorpe Hospital suggested glaucoma as a potential cause, and she was sent for further tests at Sheffield Children's Hospital where a large tumor was found.
The mom-of-two said: "One of the first signs we noticed was a slight glare in her eye on the baby monitor. I showed a picture to my health visitor because I was concerned about it.
"She told me she wasn't worried and didn't really give me any advice about what to do next. If she had told me to take her to a doctor, I feel like we might have caught it sooner."
Athena's eye was removed a short time later at Birmingham Children's Hospital on June 23, and she was diagnosed with retinoblastoma – a ' kind of eye cancer that starts as a growth of cells in the retina.'
Per the Mayo Clinic, most children who develop this cancer type are diagnosed before the age of two, but the prognosis is generally well.
For Athena, she is undergoing four rounds chemotherapy to lower the risk of the cancer spreading to the other eye after doctors found what they call 'rogue cells', which could spread to her remaining eye.
According to the mom, Athena had 'always had one iris and pupil bigger than the other one but at the beginning of June her eye got really big.'
"I thought maybe she was just blind in that eye but it became really noticeable on one photo where you can see the cloudiness in her eye," she explained.
However, she revealed that there was pressure found within her eye which alerted docs to test her further, leading to her cancer diagnosis.
"Unfortunately, she had the most advanced group of the disease. In many cases, doctors can use laser treatment, freezing therapies or chemotherapy to shrink the tumour first," said Gravil. "In her case, however, the only treatment option was to remove the eye."
She added: "There have been challenges along the way after surgery too. Shortly after her prosthesis was fitted, it came out. We hadn't been trained on how to put it back in, so we had to travel all the way to Sheffield to have it refitted, only for it to come out again the next day."
The mom went on to note how difficult it is to travel as she nor her partner drive.
"Because we don't drive, every appointment means finding someone who can take us, which is difficult and expensive. That's one of the reasons for the fundraiser.
"The money will help towards travel costs, future treatments, a custom-made prosthetic eye and anything else she may need," she said, referring to a GoFundMe page set up to help with the cost.
The mom revealed of Athena's treatment: "She's had four rounds of chemo so far. We've got one more to go, and then we'll have to wait and see whether doctors feel she needs any further treatment."
Britt Jones