Emma had her eye surgery on Wednesday morning. The official surgery name was a "bilateral medial rectus recession". Basically, they went in through her tear ducts (you can't even see any kind of an incision!) and cut some of the muscles behind her eyes (or "loosened" them) so they will (hopefully) go straight! We reported to the hospital at 7:15am and just as we had told Emma a few weeks before hand, everything happened just the way we had thought! We went to the same day surgery waiting area for a short time when the nurse came in and took us back to Emma's pre-op room. Tony and I both think that what we saw when we got into that room was one of the best things that could have happened...she had a roommate! The little girl in her room with her, Jenna, was 6 years old and having tubes put in her ears, which gave Emma a connection immediately! They watch Animal Planet together on the TV's and colored together and just giggled a lot...it eased not only their tension and nervousness, but ours, too! Emma and Jenna's nurse was awesome with them...asking them questions THEY could answer, etc. She came to take Emma's blood pressure and tells her that she's putting a hug around her arm that's going to squeeze her a bit. Emma looks at her and says, "Yeah, that's a sphygmomanometer." HA! Imagine the look on that nurse's face! LOL Here's Emma coloring a picture, which she gave to her nurse, Laura (who we learned also goes to our church!)!! She got to wear a very cool tiger-print hospital gown and even loved the little hospital socks!!
So then Emma was wheeled into the surgical holding area where Tony got to dress like a marshmallow so he could go into the OR with Emma. While in there, the nurse anesthetist came and talked to us and gave Emma a really cool red-striped surgical cap to wear and a new stuffed puppy Emma promptly named "Kaylee". She already had Pinky and Tchai with her, but Kaylee was the only one allowed to go into the surgery with her. Dr. Chris also came and talked to us and Emma. That made her feel a lot better, too...it helped her remember exactly who he was and that it was really him doing the surgery! Here she is with her animal friends and with her Daddy the marshmallow!
So, Emma and Tony went back into the surgical OR and Uncle Paul (who I swear uses that collar for the good parking spot and unlimited access anywhere in that hospital, no questions asked! LOL) and I went to the waiting area. We were there about 10 minutes when Tony came in and said she was all set and Dr. Chris was doing his magic...she apparently did awesome with the anesthesia...like we had told her before (another AWESOME thing we did was prepare her!), they put a mask the size of her hand over her mouth and told her to take a deep breath. They did everything we "prepared" Emma for, so she didn't fight at all. Tony said she looked at the mask and said, "Okay." That was it. She is awesome.
When the surgery was done, in about an hour, Dr. Chris was back in the waiting area telling us that she did awesome, that her eyes will probably be red for a little while and gave us some ointment to put on them. About 10 minutes later our little pager beeped and a volunteer took me back to the recovery area so I could sit with Emma until she woke up. She was so cute just laying there, all curled up, one sock on, breathing in that oxygen they had up to her nose! :) She had a hard time waking up and especially opening her eyes, but she got better and better as we moved from the recovery area back to the post-op room, which she didn't have to share. She enjoyed 2 Popsicles, a graham cracker, some water, apple juice and half of Uncle Paul's granola bar before we got the all-clear to go home. We were going to visit Gramma in the lab, but we weren't allowed to go with Emma still waking up from the anesthesia, so Gramma came to see us and drew smileys on all 4 of Emma's band-aids (looks like they had 3 unsuccessful attempts at starting an IV and finally got it on the 4th one). She was wheeled out to the car in a wheelchair (which she thought was pretty cool) and we came home and watched movies the rest of the day! Then she wanted Taco Bell for dinner, so we knew she was doing well...and she really was!
On Thursday, she woke up on her own and came into bed with me until I had to get ready for work. Tony's sister, Lynne, came to pick her up, and by the time I got to their house after work, she was almost like her old self...with the exception of her right eye not opening all the way. Here's Emma in the morning! :)
Something absolutely incredible is that Emma received a small "thinking of you" flower bouquet from Dr. Chris!! It's in a mug with the East Michigan Eye Center logo on it. How awesome is that?!
Bradlee totally missed his sister while she was gone, so we had some coloring time at Nana's...then Tony called to talk to Bradlee and here's the picture I got! :)
It definitely showed how much he missed her after they got their jammies on and were watching a movie. Bradlee climbed up onto the couch next to Emma and put his head right down on her lap! SO cute! :) They just sat there together and watched movies together, happy as clams! :)
Emma's recovery has been incredible. She's opening them really well and I make sure to let her look in the mirror to see how they look. We're not forcing the wearing of her glasses...only if she seems to want them on. With them being bifocals, they might bother her more than just not wearing them. The best part is that I haven't seen them cross since the surgery...of course, as Dr. Chris said, only time will tell how successful the surgery was. We go for her post-op check-up on Wednesday, so we'll see what he says! Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! We're so glad it's done! :)
1 comment:
GREAT job, Emma! From one eye surgery patient to another, you will be so happy you had the surgery. What a little trooper you are!
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