TAKING PHOTOS OF YOUR CHILD is an important part of their development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It captures special moments, but it also revealed a terrifying illness in one family’s daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rachel Mayta appeared to be in perfect health until she was 18 months old, when a doctor noticed something strange in her eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he asked her parents for pictures of her, he knew something was wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the image, her right eye appeared to be glowing, which is a sign of cancer or eye disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rachel, now 32, was diagnosed with retinoblastoma in October 1991.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a type of cancer that occurs in the retina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Doctors explained that there was no hope of saving the eye and that it needed to be removed immediately to prevent the illness from spreading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The youngster had the eyeball removed four days later, and she says she doesn’t remember much of her journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rachel is now raising awareness of the condition and has gained the confidence to experiment with various prosthetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She had her first prosthetic fitted when she was 20 months old and recalls not being bothered by having only one eye and always wearing a prosthetic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result, children dubbed her “Cyclopes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it wasn’t until her mid-20s that she experienced self-confidence issues, following a surgery to replace the implant that held her prosthetic in place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TAKING PHOTOS OF YOUR CHILD is an important part of their development. It captures special<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1260],"class_list":["post-17874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","tag-eyeball"],"yoast_head":"\n