My first giant scare

supermom83

I've been taking a lot of pictures of Oliver on my  iPhone4, and  sometimes I used the flash just to get a clearer picture. Well, in all the pictures I used flash, Olivers eyes seemed to have a "white eye" effect. The retinas of his eyes were white...sort of like what you'd expect for red eye but white. At first I didn't think anything of it, but then I got curious as to why basically ever picture I took of him with the iphone showed white eye. 

 So I googled....and  what a horrible experience that was! First links that came up were all about eye cancer, and how the flash reflects against the tumor in the eye to come out white instead of red (which is the normal color to see) and that I had to take Oliver to the doctor ASAP to get it looked at because it's fatal and best case senario they can try to save his eye sight or eyes....Other things it could be was cataracts that also needed to be looked at immediately to save his eye sight. I googled this at 10 pm and was a complete and utter mess all night long crying. I called our peds emergency number and they told me to come in the morning. 

I did not sleep a wink. I literally felt sick to my stomach and threw up from the sheer fear I felt. I texted my best friend and told her what was going on and she started googling for me. She was able to think more clearly than I was and found links from many many other iPhone4 users complaining about the "white eye" effect they kept getting when they used flash. Apparently, the flash is an LED and causes a white eye effect instead of the normal red eye....

Next day we went to the doctor, they checked Olivers eyes and guaranteed me that everything was OK and that they could clearly see the healthy red eye effect in both eyes. I was shaking and kept asking them to check again. Biggest relief of my life!!!

Just thought I'd share my crazy story. I thought being a second time mom would help me calm down and not be so scared but I'm finding myself being scared of a whole new slew of things! Sigh....so if you notice this white eye effect on pictures on your iphone, I hope you remember this story and don't freak out like I did! 

sunshine336

Glad it was nothing!  I'm sure we'll all be there- freaking out- at some point or another.  Thanks for sharing though- it helps to note that a sleep deprived person can't think straight and shouldn't turn to Dr. Google!

simbaby

Dr. Google is the devil..haha. Thanks for sharing. I know I would freak out too. I Google every little thing LO does. I think my dh is going to unplug the router if I don't stop

Sam_Tiff121309

I am glad to hear everything is okay!!!  BTW I just have to tell you I love the Oliver.....so cute!

kas80

How scary!  I try to avoid google as much as possible for that very reason, especially at night when I can't immediately call up the Dr's office.  Glad everything turned out okay though!