Intro

Hello everyone. My name is Kelley. I'll be 22 on February 11th. I am a student at Utah Valley University. I am studying to become an Elementary school teacher. I will probably become a braille teacher too. I hope to one day open my own business. I love to write and have written a childrens book that I hope to publish soon. I am married to a building inspector I met in dance class at school.

My angel is Elena. She will be 17 months old at the end of the month. She is the most beautiful little girl ever, and I'm not just saying that cause she's my daughter. :D She is always smiling and is so calm. She loves playing and rocking and is just a joy to be around. She always makes me smile when I'm having a bad day.

I found out Elena have vision problems at her 2 month check up. After many months and many tests we found out that she is totally blind. She was diagnosed with Optic Nerve Hypoplasia. There is nothing wrong with the eyes themselves but the nerves in her eyes did not fully develop so they can not carry light signals to the vision part of her brain. One doctor thinks she might be able to see super bright light if it's right in her face but that's only a guess. The doctors don't know why this happened and there is no cure. They also don't know if it will happen again when we have more kids. (So cross your fingers please!)

Since the day we found out, Elena has been seeing several different types of therapists. Because she can not see she has been delayed in things like rolling over, crawling, walking, playing with toys, etc. The therapists are doing a great job and I am looking forward to the day she will be running around the house with her little white cane.

She had an MRI of her brain around her first birthday and will get one every year around the same time. The MRI showed a couple minor things but the doctors couldn't tell what, if anything, was affected by these abnormalities. Her growth hormones and thyroid were also checked, and will be checked yearly. She is small for her age and the tests showed it's because her growth hormone levels are a little low. For now, we'll just wait and see what happens. I'm crossing my fingers she won't need hormone shots when she gets older. (One side affect of ONH is hormone problems like not producing enough thyroid, growth hormone or hormones that start puberty.) Her thyroid looks fine right now, thankfully. I wouldn't be surprised if that changes though. Thyroid problems run in my family.