Joshua was recently diagnosed with a pituitary adenoma. This is a benign growth in front of his pituitary gland behind the eyes and under the brain.
Joshua was hiking a few weeks ago when he noticed that he could not see properly out of his right eye. It wasn’t just blurry, it was faded, and hard to make out the next steps in front of him. He went to the eye doctor that week and after much testing, it was recommended that he get an immediate MRI.
This led to the diagnosis and began a rapidly unfolding process of preparing him for neurosurgery to have this growth removed. It turns out that 1 in 5 people have this condition, doctors say the cause is random and unknown. A small percentage of people require surgery to remove them because they grow large enough to pinch the optic nerve, leading to a rapid loss of vision. If nothing is done, the vision loss becomes permanent.
The surgery will stop the loss of eyesight from getting worse, and there is a strong possibility that his vision will improve. It is however a serious procedure, and he will have 4-6 weeks of recovery time with many follow-up visits to specialists after, and monitoring into the future. Currently, Joshua can not see well enough to drive.
We are going to use this site to for updates on his recovery. As you can imagine it is exhausting to respond texts and calls to multiple people and repeat the same story and news over and over. Anytime we have something to share we will do it here so we can focus out energy on his recovery. We very much appreciate your support and care. - Lauren and Jaima
