Friday Family Feature
An update on Row Giguere written by his dad, Kent.
Row turned 4 and what a year he had! As Caroline and I looked back over the past year, the biggest takeaway was how much Row has truly become a typical little boy who loves life and has a huge heart. Row loves “blasting off” driving boats, fishing at the beach, wrestling with his brothers (one of whom is 1 and can’t fight back!) and fearlessly swimming thanks to his amazing teacher Mrs. Davina. Row finished his 3K year at Westminster Weekday School in Mrs. Payne and Mrs. Ivy class where he really started to thrive. He made the sweetest friends who were always there to lend a helping hand when needed. His growth from the start of the year to the end truly was remarkable and we can’t thank everyone at Westminster Weekday School enough for all they did to ensure he had a successful year.
On the vision front, nothing has really changed but we have come to learn that no news is good news. Caroline and Row took a couple trips up to the Duke Eye Center to get Row fitted for a new contact to try a light stimulation therapy that Caroline learned about in a course she took. This ended up being a time consuming proposition that ultimately didn’t yield much improvement as Row could never get comfortable with the contact due to allergies and it being a hard shell. Although this attempt didn’t help, we will never stop trying new things whenever we can to see if anything can help Row’s vision.
At one of the trips to the Duke Eye Center, they also saw his retina specialist, Dr. Cynthia Toth. We found out that Dr. Toth would be retiring at the end of this summer which left her and Caroline crying thinking about the journey that we have all been on together. We really can’t describe what she has meant to our family and how amazing she has been to Row. In the early stages of Row’s diagnosis, Caroline and I were eager to try everything immediately. Dr. Toth would always tell us “the enemy of good is perfect” and this has stuck with us.
Next year Row will head back to Westminster Weekday School to complete his 4K year. As we do every year, we will have to figure out what accommodations Row needs to be able to get the most out of every day. We don’t know exactly what that looks like yet but with the help of the wonderful leadership at his school and his teachers and therapist, I know we will come up with a plan, and I can’t wait to see how much he will accomplish this year!
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