My Eyes

How about that Korean barbecue place

off Swanston Street?

Your favourite.

You mean, your favourite.

Sure, we can go wild on Wagyu beef.

Only because you know I love my meat.

Ah, OK.

Look, I gotta go. We're at Mum's, OK?

OK. Love you, peanut.

-Love you, Dad. -Say hi to Wai-Poh.

Bye!

OK, so remember to set the alarm on your watch

for table tennis. Yeah?

You know Wai-Poh can be a bit forgetful,

and then I'll finish work early,

and I'll help you with your maths.

But can we go to the park first?

Please?

OK.

Let's go.

I really need to win my money back.

Like I am going to let you?

Game four, take two.

Is that your..

Wai-Poh, time to go.

Ping-pong, I know, I haven't forgotten.

You're corrupting your granddaughter.

Does her mother knows that she's learning mahjong from us?

Yes, she's learning from the experts.

Issy, you can always hang out with us all the time.

-Sik wu. -Pong!

Ai-yo!

How could that happen?

Well, ladies, you snooze, you lose.

I tried to warn you.

Pay up.

So, which side is clearer and more distinct?

The circles on the red or the circles on the green?

Red. No, no. Green.

Green? And how about now?

-About the same. -Same. Good. You're doing well.

And now, is it better one or better two?

One.

Yeah, that's good, Luke.

Excellent.

You can have a go now.

Ow!

Are you alright, Issy?

Yeah. I'm fine.

Issy, let me look.

Are you OK?

Wai-Poh, stop! You're embarrassing me.

Don't be silly. Let me see.

It's fine! Let me play.

I'm calling your mother.

Oh, look at your beautiful family.

Oh, thank you.

That was my daughter's birthday party in March.

And this one?

Oh, that was a Para-Judo tournament.

I was a volunteer.

Haven't done any of that in ages.

Not since I started a family.

Sorry. Just hold on two secs.

It's my mum. I've got to grab it.

I'll get our dispenser to help you with some frames.

-Thank you. -Yep, great. Thanks.

Hey, Mum.

Oh, what?

Issy, please, just...

Mum, I'm fine.

I'm sure you are.

Come on. Just look here.

I know it's bright, darling. Nearly done.

OK. Just try again, OK.

Looking here again.

Can you just take Issy out just for a few minutes?

I've just got to make a few phone calls.

Come on, let's go.

Sorry. I'm so sorry. Excuse me.

Hey, there.

Hey. Sorry to interrupt,

but Issy just had

an accident at table tennis.

A ball went into her eye.

Oh, what? How bad is it?

Oh, hopefully, it's going to be OK.

But, yeah. Look, I still want to book her in

to see an ophthalmologist, for sure.

OK. Um...

Well, I'll finish up here

and I'll see you at home shortly.

Love you.

That's a nice colour.

Mm-hm. It's my favourite.

Hey, peanut. You alright?

Yeah, I'm alright.

Let me see.

Oh...

We're all making too much of a fuss about nothing.

We're not making a fuss about it.

It's not nothing, Issy.

We're going to take you to the eye specialist on Tuesday, OK?

Your mum's right. Your eyesight is important.

In fact, that's how your mum and I met.

What do you mean?

Well, she was doing her masters,

and I volunteered to be a patient at the school.

I was one of her guinea pigs.

Ooh. Was it romantic?

Of course.

How was it for you, dear?

Well, you can see how it all turned out.

Ooh!

My special guinea pig!

Guinea pig wants some fun.

No fun tonight! Good night, guinea pig.

Alright. Let's see.

No fun, huh?

No to fun?

That sounds sexy now.

You only have one.

No.

You only have one child!

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm thinking, that you're aware of.

Are you hearing this, Mum?

Sorry, what?

Don't you have a twin?

No!

-Then who is... -I was just thinking maybe...

Who was the other...

Who was the good child?

The one that, you know...

No, the really... The one...

The one that works really hard at...

Oh, where did that one go?

Can't remember.

No, just joking. You're the bestest.

The bestest?

Dr Nelson, phone call on line three.

Hi. Would you mind signing this for me, please?

It's so we can take a blood sample.

OK, I'll see if I can get that.

Thanks. Bye.

Caulfield Eye Clinic. How can I help you?

Off we go, young lady.

Of course. The first available is...

Which one of you would like to come with us?

Could you?

I'm just not feeling too crash hot at the moment.

OK, sure, and your name, please?

Sure.

Come on.

And don't forget to bring your Medicare card.

OK, thanks.

Fortunately, there were

no serious effects from the impact of the ping pong ball.

However, I did notice that Isabella has a tendency

to move her head more than her eyes

when following things.

Isn't that sort of normal?

Yes. Well, it depends on a number of factors,

and it can be absolutely normal.

Or in some cases, it might be symptomatic,

as it was in your daughter's case.

Um, symptomatic of what?

Tunnel vision...

as a result of a fairly rare genetic disorder

called Retinitis Pigmentosa.

How are we going to tell Issy

that she has an untreatable eye condition,

and she could be legally blind within 12 months?

Well, according to Dr Rossi, it's not untreatable.

Stem cell therapy?

Right. You know about that?

Yeah, but all I know is that it's in clinical trials,

so it's unproven and experimental.

But, Sam, I think it's worth a try.

We've just got to move fast.

I'll talk to Dr Rossi again...

see if we can get more information...

No, definitely. Definitely. I mean, it's...

-Bye, Dad. -See you later.

Bye!

I did notice that Isabella has a tendency

to move her head more than her eyes when following things.

What's going on?

Tell me what's going on.

It's about the doctors and the tests, isn't it?

-I'm not stupid! -Issy.

You can't talk to your mum like that.

I know you're upset.

Issy, what you have...

It's called Retinitis Pigmentosa.

Most people call it RP.

And what happens is that your vision,

it goes from seeing out here...

to seeing just only a little bit in the centre.

Am I going blind?