Aid for our Angel Addie

This is the story of the Bedunah Family.
Late in February of this year our three year old daughter woke up with a swollen eye. With the beginning of spring in the air my wife and I concluded that it was probably allergies and as we normal would do we gave her some allergy medicine and did not really think much of else of it. After about a week had gone by the swelling in Addie's eye had not improved. We were hesitant to take her to the Doctor because my wife had just recently lost her job and was in the process of looking for another. At the time I was, and still am, a full time student finishing the last few hours towards a bachelors degree. Since neither one of us had an income or insurance we decided we would limit her time outside, make sure she washed her face and hands after being outside and continued giving her allergy medicine, hoping allergies were the cause of the swelling. After another week or so while I was out on spring break we took our family to visit my Dad and Stepmom for a few days. While we were there my wife noticed that Addie's eye was not only swollen around the eyelids but it seemed to be shifting down and further to the right as well as slightly protruding. We then decided to take her to a clinic and have her checked by a Doctor. On Wednesday March 18th the doctor at the clinic diagnosed Addie with Dacryocystitis a common infection in the lacrimal duct. She was prescribed an oral antibiotic and antibiotic eye drops that we started giving her that day. After about 7 days on the antibiotics we had not noticed any improvement of her eye and in fact had noticed that the shift in her eye placement had gotten worse. The next day on March 27th we took her to the ER at Childern's Hospital in Plano. We were quickly referred to the Opthalmologist specialist at Children's Medical Center in Dallas for the next day. After administering a few eye exams and determining that her vision was fine the Opthalmologist ordered an MRI for Monday March 30th. After Adalyn's MRI on Monday we were contacted by the Opthalmologist's office and made a follow up appointment for the next day and we were referred to the ENT specialist for a follow up with their office to go over the results of the MRI. The next day, March 31st, we met with the ENT and she showed us the images of the MRI that revealed a large mass that was growing in the ethmoid sinus cavity that is located just to the left and behind Addie's right eye. The mass, at that time, was approximately the size of her eyeball and was putting pressure on her eye and the surrounding eye muscles which was causing the shift in the location of her eye and causing her eye to protrude outward. The physician thought the mass shared characteristics of an Anuersymal Bone Cyst due to the appearance in structure and the possibility of fluid within the mass. But due to the extremely rare instances of ABC in the skull and even more rare within the sinus cavities the Physician was not sure if that was in fact what it was.A stealth CT scan was ordered for that same day and a biopsy was scheduled for Monday April 6th. Adalyn's biopsy went well and we met back with our Physician on Friday April 11th to go over the results. Adalyn was diagnosed with having an Anuersymal Bone Cyst in the ethmoid sinus cavity and the cyst had created a defect in her skull and the cyst was growing into her cranial cavity but had not reached her brain. After much research with the help of family and friends we discovered that only about 1% of all occurrences of ABC has occurred within a sinus cavity. There have only been approximately 22 cases of ABC documented that occurred within any sinus cavity. The Doctors at Children's were dealing with a very rare case that none of them had dealt with before. Our Physician presented Adalyn's case to the Neurology Conference and consulted with other rhinologists as well as the Opthalmologist and the Oncology department at Children's. Adalyn is scheduled for surgery on April 17th for the removal of the cyst and to repair the gap in her skull that the cyst has created. The surgeons are uncertain of how they are going to be able to remove the cyst because of its location in the skull. The ideal procedure will be through the nose and the gap will be repaired with mucosa from her cheek or nostrils. This procedure will take approximately 6 hours and the recovery time will be ideally 5 days in the hospital. However, with the location of the cyst and depending on the size of the gap in her skull more invasive procedures may be necessary and could result up to a 3 week stay. The team of 5 surgeons from different specialities that will be taking care of our daughter will have to determine the best route possible once they begin the procedure. We pray for the surgeons and for our little Angel everyday. She has carried on through this entire process as if nothing was wrong at all. She continues to play with her little sister Audrie and she has kept up with her dance classes as best as she can. She has shown us what perseverance and resilience truly looks like and reminds us to enjoy every moment.
Eric Bedunah (Addie's dad)