"The Procedure Went Perfectly"

I guess all doctors say that whenever they possibly can, but it's always reassuring to hear those words from a doctor who is greeting you after some type of surgery on your baby.

After we got the other 3 kids off to school, we were off to our pre-op appointment with the doctor at his office.

Isn't it amazing how quickly you can get in and out of a doctor's office when you have plenty of time? We were in the office for all of about 20 minutes. And that included getting an agreeable post-op appointment scheduled and paying the doctor for the surgery he would be performing in 4 hours. Oh, and at her appointment this morning, the doctor could tell a difference since her last exam as both eyes were exhibiting signs of hypertropia. That was actually a relief for me because I worried that we would have to do this again if her left eye started showing signs AFTER he fixed the right eye for that today.

Funny thing happened, too. (ha ha) We walked into the office at the same time as a dad and son we know from church. The son was there for an exam and we told his dad were having surgery today. So comforting to hear from a family who has had FIVE strabismus surgeries the morning you're going in for your first... I have to think his case was much worse because he was diagnosed before he was one and our doctor's dad was his mom's doctor for the same condition.

SO, with all the time in the world, we headed for one of the nearby malls. Ice skating was on our potential agenda and we managed to put away an hour with a Wal-Mart detour to buy socks since none of us were wearing any. Unfortunately, on Wednesdays the ice rink doesn't open until 12:30. Every other week day (of course) it opens at 11am. Little Girl was highly disappointed, but we whiled away the time on the carousel and window shopping in various kid-friendly stores.

Dad even suggested a visit to Build-A-Bear and shocked Mom by letting Little Girl pick a bear to build. This would serve her well as the day wore on. She's not been particularly attached to a stuffed animal or anything, so her new little friend (Madison) was a great comfort to her on this day.

Madison and Little Girl are enjoying "Happy Juice" and "High School Musical 2". During her "Happy Juice" experience, she suddenly commented on the fact that all the little cubicle rooms were purple and she was hoping hers would be pink. Obviously, the juice was taking effect. Two of the ministers Mom works with came and prayed with us and visited for a bit while we waited.

The surgery had been delayed to 2pm and we were back with her in the recovery room by about 2:40. All the nurses commented on how great she had done and she was waking up perfectly and they were so impressed with how well she was doing. I'm sure they say that as much as possible, but it's encouraging no matter.

After Little Girl was able to drink a satisfying amount of her water and a bit of popsicle, they said she was ready to go. They wheeled her out in a wheelchair, but she was disappointed to have no recollection of it. She slept most of the way home with a cool wet cloth over her eyes.

She rested comfortably (well, as comfortable as you can wearing sunglasses ... although, she IS conked out here) until she decided she was ready for some food. She's out walking around the block with Dad and Heidi at the moment, so I think that means she's feeling fairly well.

Even though we had been warned about her bloodshot eyes and her eyes watering a bit of blood, I really wasn't prepared for how bad they would look. Her eyes are itching her a bit and she wants to rub them. They're weeping blood much more than I expected and it's bothering her so she wants to wipe it away. I don't want to hurt her eyes with the camera flash, but I'm going to try to get a picture soon of how her eyes look. They aren't looking quite as dilated as they were earlier this afternoon, so hopefully I'll be able to get a picture this evening so we can really tell how much better they look in the morning.

Thank you for all the prayers for Little Girl and everyone today. I remember being much more apprehensive with her endoscopy 2 years ago, so I appreciate your prayers for our peace. Let me also commend the Pediatric Surgery Center. If your doctor is part of that group and your child ever needs a procedure that can be done there, they are SUPER.