Eye surgery

Samantha has had eye drainage problems her whole life (apparently lots of kids do). Well, it is supposed to clear up on it's own by one year and we waited til she was almost 2........and nothing, so she had the surgery. It is to clear out the tear ducts, they put a wire down them and then a balloon to stretch them out (usually there is a blockage at the end of the duct that needs stretching). They had to sedate her so we had to do the whole no eating for most of the night thing that really sucks for a short-gut kid who is starving by 2am. Well, we got through that then had to be at the hospital at 6am!! We are about an hour away so, we woke up at like 4:30am!

Then we wait in lots of waiting rooms and get vitals and measurments and stuff. (Still no food or drink for Mantha.) And since we were at Primary (where my Dad works) everyone gives us lots of extra attention. Doctors come in and check on us every step of the way and are so good to us. She was a little clingy and grumpy for the first part of the morning (no food, no sleep). But, when the anesthesiologist took her down the hall to sedate her for the surgery she was fine, that was a relief. The surgery went well, it was pretty quick and then we got to see her coming out of anesthesia, she was pretty groggy and confused and didn't like the breathing tube or the IV, but just cuddled with me. Her eyes had bloody tears coming out that was pretty creepy and her nose had lots of blood too . She was able to drink some apple juice and didn't vomit so before long we were discharged and went home. She was a little drugged for the rest of the day, and had some pain, by the next day we both just slept a lot! We gave her eye drops for a few days, and that was it. Pretty quick recovery.

We actually had this surgery done about 2 weeks ago, sorry for the late blogging. But, her eyes are still pretty bad. We have been in touch with the Doctor (he gave us his cell phone, pager, office phone, and home phone numbers and has been calling us every few days to check up on us). See what I mean about extra attention? He thinks it could still clear up, if not we will have to repeat the surgery. It is a pretty common surgery and about 10% have to get it done twice. So, hopefully we won't be in the 10% group. Fingers crossed.

So, you'd think we are used to all this hospital stuff, but it is seriously a whole new ball game when they are old enough to know what's going on. The whole time she was a in the hospital as a baby, I just felt bad and sad when she cried or they did procedures on her. Now, she fights it and it is so much harder. I'm glad we have most of her hospitalizations out of the way........knock on wood. :)

This picture is pre-surgery in a waiting room.
Sorry about the girl in the background, I didn't take many pictures that day and this was the best one.



These are post-op at home.