Phylcten-What?

Ever heard of a phylctenule? Yeah, we hadn't either. But after a visit to a pediatric ophthamologist, we learned all about it.

We noticed one day that Ellie's eye was blood shot. After a day or two, it cleared up but there was a small whitish bump on her eye, almost like it was mucus or something but it wouldn't move when she blinked. We took her to her pediatrician and she said, "Hmm... I have no idea what that is." But it wasn't irritating her, and it wasn't affecting her vision so she didn't seem too worried. Just in case, she referred us to the Rocky Mountain Eye Center in Salt Lake. But as with all specialists, we couldn't get an appointment for 3 1/2 weeks.

A week or so passed and her eye started clearing up. "Hooray!" we thought. But then it came back a few days later and seemed to be getting worse. So we called the ophthamologist and they were able to move up our appointment.

The doc diagnosed it as a phlyctenule. Wikipedia defines it as this: a small whitish bump or blister found on the eye. It is on one or more discrete spots on the eye and has visible small blood vessels. Or, as our doctor put it: it's a ramped up immune response to something that causes a bump on the eye.

Luckily, it's easily treatable. Well, if you consider putting eye drops into a fighting 6 month old easy, then yes... I suppose it is "easily" treatable.

But it's nothing serious, and she'll go back to being a beautiful, tan princess in no time!

Here's the best picture I could find of our Phlyctenule-baby, although it's not a very good one. It just looks like her eyes is a little red. If you want to see more disgusting pictures, you can always google it.