Success!

The previous pics are before, after and one day post-surgery. I certainly can tell a big difference in her left eye! It's even been more noticible today and it really warmed my heart when Lindsey said, "I just love how my eyes look straight, mom!"

As for the surgery itself yesterday, all ended up going as planned. We got there, the anesthesiologist listened to her lungs and said they sounded fine so we were a GO! When we got there, we all got stickers to wear, "Lindsey's Mom, Lindsey's Dad and Lindsey's Sister". Lindsey got her bracelet and her bear, Snowy, got a matching bracelet too!



Next, we had the prelim vitals, etc., waiting to head to OR. I got to go in with her and lucky me, got to dress all up 'like a snowman' or as Lindsey said, "You look just like Snowy, mom!"





Sydney was so concerned about her sister, constantly asking when she was going to be done, if she was okay, etc. When we got back to the recovery room, Syd ran right in and said, Lindsey! I'm so glad you're okay. I love you so much! She continued to gush over her the whole time and the nurse asked if they were always like this, and I told her, yes, pretty much!







I'm just so proud of how Lindsey handled it all. I was quite worried about it, but she really surprised us. She's been a trooper. The doctor resectioned approximately 6 mm of muscle in each of her eyes. They will continue to be red for weeks, gradually getting pinker and then back to white. We're doing antibiotic/anti-inflammatory drops in her eyes three times a day for a week. We have a follow-up appointment with her doctor on Tuesday. She's already cleared to go back to school on Monday. She's experienced really no pain at all. We've just been giving her Tylenol, regularly on the first day, but now, as needed. Actually, it's been really hard to keep her resting and not jumping around!

Of course, after we came home Thursday, we had to do something fun that night! Dad made sugar cookies, so the girls had fun frosting them! YUUUUUM! Happy Holidays!

Time for Surgery...

We knew the time would come and now it has. Lindsey will be going in for Strabismus surgery this Thursday. It has come up fairly quickly. We had originally planned to wait until the new year to do this, but then we found out that our health insurance is changing (not a bad thing, we decided to make a change). Now, though, we feel it's better to have Lindsey's surgery this year. So, I called last week to see about scheduling and they had this Thursday open and we took the slot. The scheduling worked well, as you know, the girls have school M-W-every other F, and this is a 'no school on Friday' week.

We need to be at the surgery center by 9:30 a.m., surgery at 10:15 a.m. Our pediatric opthamologist will be doing the surgery. She calls the night before and talks with us again in the morning before the surgery, as well as, the standard talks with the nurses and anesthesiologist. I will be able to go back to the OR with her until she falls asleep. The surgery itself will take about an hour. We expect to be back home mid-afternoon, armed with some pain meds. The whites of her eyes will be red and she could possibly have some swelling and discharge, BUT they "say" she should be good to go back to school on Monday. Amazing.

We have been using a combination of patching (3 hours a day) and eye drops (3 days a week) over the past year and half, switching back and forth, and using all sorts of bribery and manipulation to get Lindsey to keep doing those things. She really hates wearing the patch now and at first, welcomed the drops, so as she didn't have to do the patch, but now, they are both a PITA, for ALL of us!

This was all done, along with her glasses, to treat her Amblyopia and while we've had good success with bringing her vision more equal between her two eyes, her muscles still need some adjustments, thus the reason for the surgery.

I'm a little nervous about the surgery. Not so much, the surgery itself, but how Lindsey is going to react after it's over. She tends to be quite stubborn and get herself worked up into fits that frankly, sometimes it's really hard to snap her out of. She responds really well to information up front, so we've been talking a lot about the surgery, what's going to happen, how her eyes will be red, etc. She's been quite calm and inquisitive about the whole thing. Maybe she'll surprise me. I'm thinking that a lot of her calmness has to do with the knowledge that Sydney's been through this before with her heart procedure and now she feels it's her turn. I don't know though. It could also just be the fact that she knows she probably won't have to patch or use eye drops anymore.
So, if you could spare a prayer or some positive thoughts for us on Thursday, we'd appreciate them!

Happy Holidays! The girls sure loved decorating the tree! I just love their Christmas spirit!