Emily Pickett

It was June, 2001 and I went to the pediatrician for my kindergarten checkup when I was 5 years old.  While I was there he did an eye exam and noticed that I was having trouble seeing the eye chart with my left eye so he sent me to a pediatric ophthalmologist where he saw that my retina was becoming detached.  That doctor sent me to a retinal specialist where he saw the tumor.  He referred me to Dr. Timothy Murray in Miami, FL.

Dr. Murray took a look at my eye and told my parents that it was a tumor and explained that I would need to have my eye removed in order to save my life.  I had the surgery 10 days after we found out about the tumor.  Dr. Murray came out halfway through the surgery and told my parents that the tumor was covering the optic nerve and that there was a good chance that it had spread to the brain but that we would have to wait for the test results.  Luckily, the next day, Dr. Murray said the preliminary results were good and that I could go home without any chemotherapy. 

I received my first temporary prosthetic eye in August just before I started kindergarten.  I continue to see Dr. Murray every six months and so far, have had no other problems.  I receive a new eye from Scott Garonzik when I outgrow one and have about 15 in my collection so far.  My eyes look amazing and most people don’t even notice it.  

Looking back, my parents thought of some warning signs that they didn’t know to pay attention to.  In March of that same year, I was playing pirate with my grandpa.  He put a patch over my good eye and I started crying because I couldn’t see.  He just thought he put the patch on wrong and took it off right away.  I also had pictures from when I was 8 months old showing a red reflection in one eye and a white reflection in the other.  They didn’t realize that this was the tumor.  I had been going blind in my left eye slowly over time so I didn’t notice it either.

My 2nd grade teacher asked me to be a science experiment one time.  They took us outside to see the difference in the size of pupils when exposed to light.  All of the kids in my class looked at my eyes while we ere still in the classroom so they could see that both pupils were the same size.  Then, when we went outside, they looked again and saw that my real eye’s pupil got smaller, while the fake one stayed like it was when we were inside.  I also always used to say to my friends “Want to see me touch my eye?”.  It always grossed them out and I thought it was the coolest thing.

I’m 14 years old now and I’m a freshman in high school in honors classes and almost always get good grades.  I used to play basketball, and I am now on the volleyball team at my school.  We went on a ski vacation and I was great.  I am learning how to drive and I am always on the computer and hanging out with my friends. 

Whenever I feel down about what happened to me, I think to what a friend’s mom told me.  “God gave me two of everything in case one goes bad, you always have an extra!”.