Eye Surgery

So, the only reason we are able to type about this now is because things are looking better. But, let me tell you, this surgery was rough. Let me explain...

When we went into this one, we were already celebrating that it would be the last of a laundry list of procedures that we have had on our plate ever since Charlotte was born. 3 YEARS ago. We have had surgery after surgery looming in the distance and we were finally here at the end of this race. Because her back surgery had gone so well and she was completely healed from it and because she had done so well with her first eye surgery when she was 11 months old, we were thinking this too would be a breeze.

Surgery day came, Sept. 11. As were were signing the paper work, that funny feeling came over me... "Do her eyes really look that bad?" - voice in my head. "Of course the Dr. wouldn't be doing surgery if he didn't think she needed it". I signed away and before we knew it, the anesthesia team whisked her away for surgery, Charlotte totally unawares... that is until she saw "the mask". Then, we are told, she was pretty upset. I think she remembered from 2 weeks ago.

Then, after a few hours of waiting, the nurse comes in to allow one of us to be with Charlotte in recovery. Charlotte was a crying, screaming, puffy faced, bloody eyed, snot faced MESS! I immediately felt aweful and wished there was some way to calm her down, ease her pain, anything to stop the crying. When the nurse finally offered to let Chris come back, I said "Please!" thinking maybe just seeing him would calm her. Nope, all he saw was the reason I begged her to let him come back. She was inconsolable.

At some point, they took us back to our original room, Charlotte still crying and whimpering some, not letting go for ANYTHING and just wanting to be held close.

At some point she let go of me long enough for me to go to the bathroom, and she ended up falling asleep for a short while with Chris. She was refusing all liquids or food that the nurses wanted her to drink/eat. At some point, I fibbed to the nurse and told her she had sipped her juice, just so they would let us out of there. She just wanted to be home and I didn't blame her.

Charlotte ate a little bit of gold fish and drank some juice when we got home and then insisted on sleeping on the couch instead of in her bed. We weren't about to make her.

Passed out.

The rest of the story goes something like this. Charlotte proceeded to throw up at dinner... yuck. Then, the next day when we really got a chance to see her open her puffy little eyes, it wasn't the blood in them that worried us. It was the fact that her Right eye, once her good eye, was now turning outward!!! We were really scared that the Dr. had over-corrected her eye and that she was now going to need another surgery to fix it. Even though he told us not to make judgements the first weekend, we couldn't help ourselves because this eye was FINE before. I cried many tears about this, thinking "What have we done!"

And, Charlotte couldn't see correct. When I asked her to touch my nose, she would miss to the right by about 2 inches every time! We were sure her eyes were really screwed up and were anxious for her follow-up appointment Monday morning. It couldn't come fast enough.

Low and behold, the Dr. was right. Do not make judgements right away, the muscles have to heal! On Monday, he reassured me that as they heal, then the eye will straighten back out withing 1-2 weeks. We are already seeing (no pun intended) improvements. Final judgement will be passed in about another week.

Sigh... wanting to celebrate no more surgeries but not sure yet.

The Hawns