Back to the hospital

I had a fleeting thought as I wrote my last blog post that my wishes of not returning to the hospital anytime soon would come back to haunt me. Unfortunately, my intuitions were correct. As most of you know, Liliana wears glasses because she is far-sighted and because she has strabismus. From the beginning of our many, many visits to the eye doctor, he has said there was a chance of surgery. At her last visit, a couple of months ago, the doctor said it was looking more likely that she was going to need surgery. However, they needed to wait for her left eye to be as strong as her right eye.

Today Liliana had another eye appointment. The eye doctor said that her left eye is now as strong as her right eye, so it is time to pursue surgery. I thought when she did have surgery it would only be on her left eye, but as it turns out, he will be doing surgery on both of her eyes.

Okay, now, for those of you who want the details that make me cringe (and if you don't, skip down to the next paragraph): First off, I should say that my facts may not be entirely correct. The eye doctor was giving me this information while I was trying to keep Michael and Liliana from interrupting him. Okay, back to the gory details: There are several (six, I think) muscles attached to the eye. During the surgery they will clip her eyes open and then cut a slit along the protective lining over her eyes. Then, the doctor will detach the top muscle closest to the inside of her eye and reattach it so it is closer to the inside of her eye. In other words, the muscle right now is stretching really far and he is going to make it so the muscle doesn't stretch as far. This will hopefully help her eyes to look straight ahead and not to shake anymore.

There is a 1 in 5 chance that Liliana will have to have to have the surgery two times. And there is a 1 in 10,000 chance that her eyes will get infected and her vision will end up worse than before. We are hoping and praying that we only have to do this surgery once and that it goes well with no infections. The surgery is out-patient so we will bring her home after the surgery. The doctor said that kids usually bounce right back after this surgery with no problems. She'll be fine to wear her glasses as usual and she won't need to do any patching afterwards. Although, her eyes will likely be puffy for a week and red for 2 weeks.

So, as we return to the hospital for yet another surgery for our dear little Liliana, would you join us in prayer? Please pray that everything goes smoothly, that Liliana would be able to endure, with high spirits, another trip to the hospital, and that Mommy and Daddy would be able to endure it as well. I am pretty sure it's harder on us that it is on her.

(The date is yet to be set, but we are thinking after Christmas.)