Congenital Cataracts... and what those words mean to M...
1. Congenital means a person was born with it - M was born with the cataract in her right eye.
2. Cataract is a clouding of the eye. The lens of the eye is normally clear and transparent. The pupil should be uniformly dark black.
3. An infant can have a unilateral (one eye) cataract or bilateral (two eye) cataracts. M had a unilateral cataract in her right eye.
4. The size, density, and location of a cataract can affect how an infant is seeing through the cataract. M had a large, dense cataract in the center of her lens that was affecting her vision out of that eye. M needed to have surgery to remove the cataract or she would have been blind in her right eye.
5. Cataracts are formed from proteins accumulating on the lens of the eye.
6. In most cases physicians don't know why infants are born with cataracts. Some reasons could be hereditary or exposure to certain viruses in utero. M has no family history of cataracts, and wasn't exposed to any viruses that we know of.
7. If one eye isn't working as well as the other the brain will ignore the images from the 'bad' eye. M's right eye with the cataract was receiving only some light, and unfocused unclear images. Her brain had been ignoring the messages that eye was receiving. This results in 'lazy eye' which M did not noticeably have but would have had eventually.
8. With a unilateral cataract the brain relies on the messages being received from the eye with no cataract. M's brain had learned to not use her eye that had the cataract. Her brain had already switched off that eye, and was relying on her left eye for sight because it was sending clear and focused images to her brain. This is where the world of patching begins after surgery; M will need to patch her 'good eye' in order to require her eye that has already been switched off to start working again.
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