Unique stories
The story of the Dindas family and their Carlotta
The story of the Dindas family is that of so many families.
Today, many years after the diagnosis, daughter Carlotta and the whole family are doing well.
After many ups and downs, the Dindas want to share their positive attitude to life, their whole personal story, with other affected families and, above all, encourage them:
Carlotta is six years old.
The baby of the Dindas family from Hattingen.
Two years ago, her right eye was removed in an operation lasting several hours.
Carlotta had a tumor behind her eye.
A retinoblastoma.
Since then she has had a magic eye.
That’s what she calls the glass eye she wears.
She emphatically tells a boy at kindergarten who thinks he has to tease her about her “funny eye”: “That’s my magic eye.”
The boy said nothing more after that.
As with so many children, the cancer was discovered by chance.
Melanie Dindas remembers the day of the diagnosis very well.
Together with Carlotta and her two older daughters Antonia and Johanna, she had already spent two hours in the doctor’s office: “The doctor asked me to send Carlotta and her sisters outside, then he told me that Carlotta very probably had a tumor.”
Tears flow immediately.
Who to call?
What to do?
What happens next?
Husband Martin on a business trip; not available.
The children’s grandparents are coming.
Perplexity.
Despair.
Fear.
Melanie Dindas: “We had never heard of this disease before. Retinoblastoma. I didn’t want to and couldn’t research it online. My fear of what I would find out was so great.”
Husband Martin researches and collects information on eye cancer in children, a malignant tumor that can lead to death if left untreated, but has a good chance of being cured if detected early.
During his research, Martin Dindas came across the website of the Children’s Eye Cancer Foundation for the first time.
Meanwhile, the doctors at Essen University Hospital confirmed the diagnosis and operated on the child just one week later.
Carlotta does not complain about the lack of light in her eye.
There is only one thing she still remembers two years later, says her mother.
Carlotta kept vomiting for over a week.
The child initially rejected the prosthetic eye.
Melanie Dindas: “For the first three months, we wrapped her in a blanket when we wanted to remove or insert the prosthesis.”
That’s how much her daughter physically resisted it.
But how should they deal with Carlotta’s rejection?
And what happens next?
Who has similar experiences?
It takes a long time for Melanie Dindas to get online.
She also comes across the website of the Children’s Eye Cancer Foundation – and discovers Elli.
The cuddly elephant with the removable eye.
Elli – Melanie Dindas would also like to have one for her child.
Today, Elli lies in Carlotta’s bed, has to go everywhere with her and is always “on hand” when Carlotta wants to show other children how to take her eye out and put it back in again.
At the last RB meeting of the Children’s Eye Cancer Foundation, the Dindas got to know other affected families who have had the same experience as them AND they met the KAKS encouragers, adults who have been living with the disease for a long time – wonderful people who radiate joie de vivre and give them no reason to despair about Carlotta’s diagnosis.
Today Carlotta is doing well, she is a self-confident, smart, sporty girl, has friends, attends elementary school in her neighborhood.
Just a normal girl.
The Dindas have accepted and come to terms with their daughter’s story.
The cancer is gone and the family’s life has returned to normal.
Not least because they no longer feel alone.
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