Liliana and I went to Children's bright and early on Wednesday morning. I have to say that I was quite impressed with Liliana that morning - she seemed to not have a care in the world. She didn't mind that she had to have another surgery. She was actually excited -- another surgery meant that she got to have a popsicle and a juice box. And this was all she talked about for the days leading up to the surgery as well as that morning. "After my surgery all done, I get a popsicle and a juice box!" Never mind the fact that you are going to be mad about the IV in your arm and irritated by your eyes. Of course, she had no idea what her eyes would feel like, but you'd think she would remember the IV -- that was the bane of her existence after her last surgery. But, I guess that goes to show that what they say is true - after the fact you remember the good parts (popsicle and juice box) and forget the bad (IV).
Anyway, she had a fabulous time while we waited for her surgery begin. There were some special moments. I do have to set the seen for you to understand completely. Liliana is IN LOVE with her Vikings shirt and her orange sweatpants. If it were up to her, that would be all she would wear - day and night. I finally got a clue and let her wear her Vikings shirt and orange sweatpants as pajamas so that she COULD wear them multiple days in a row -- and then no one else would have to be put through the torture of seeing this hideous outfit. Okay, back to the point of the story. Since she was having surgery, I let her pick out what she wanted to wear to the hospital, and of course, she picked her Vikings shirt and orange sweatpants. She was sitting on my lap in the waiting area looking at a book. There was a nurse floating around the waiting room talking to each child that was having surgery and finding out if they had any questions about their surgery. This nurse came up to me from behind so she only saw the back of Liliana's head. She whispered to me, "Is this little Eduardo?" As she was asking me this hilarious question, Liliana turned her head and the nurse saw that this little child with a Vikings jersey on and shortish hair was, in fact, a girl, and clearly not Eduardo. I had to hold in my laughter as I said, "No, this is Liliana." "Oh, yes," she said slowly, probably trying to quickly figure out how to cover up her mistake or maybe she was pondering why anyone would let their GIRL out in a boyish shirt, "I just wanted to let you know that you shouldn't be waiting much longer..." OK. Thanks for letting me know. Bwahahaha.
Well, to her credit, it wasn't much longer before another nurse called Liliana's name. LILIANA. That is the name she called because Liliana is her name, right.? I know it's confusing because the poor girl has 5 names (2 first, 2 middle, 1 last). But, you'd think that you would just call the person by their first first name. Which she did. However, when we got in the pre-op room where they would take her vitals and she would get on her jammies, all of the name tags had the name "Faye" on them. Really? How does that make any sense at all? And why wouldn't you ASK me what she goes by before you randomly choose a name to put on all the identification stickers. Weird. So, I wore a name tag that said "Faye H." And Liliana wore a name tag that said "Liliana Faye" because they added the "Liliana" to her sticker.
And now, for the best part of the pre-op procedures: our meeting with the eye doctor. I just can't believe the ridiculousness of this statement. But, maybe he was just trying to make small talk? Anyway, we walk in to meet with Liliana's eye doctor - and the one doing the surgery - and he says to Liliana, "My, you look beautiful today, except for the lazy eye, but we'll fix that." I laugh every time I think about it. What a weird thing to say. But, I guess it's different when you are a Mom. I just look at her and see my beautiful amazing daughter - lazy eye or not - I think she is stunning. Silly man.
Okay, so now back to the surgery. Liliana's a stinkin' pro at it these days. She takes that bubble gum smelling mask like a champ and breaths deep. No wiggling, no crying, no fear. The team that helped "put her under" were so impressed, per usual.
The surgery took about an hour. The eye doctor said everything went as good as it could have gone. Her eyes looked great. However, we won't know how successful the surgery was for 6-8 weeks at which point they will decide if another surgery is necessary.
An hour after the surgery was over, Liliana was awake. They brought her into a recovery room where I was waiting for her. The poor thing was so uncomfortable and tired. Her popsicle didn't even really make her happy. She rested for about an hour in my lap, in and out of sleep. She did manage to eat two popsicles (which is what she likes to tell people about her experience) and drank a juice box. One of the nurses came in and gave her a teddy bear as a gift. It was so sweet. Here is a picture of my poor, sad girl trying to sleep away the pain. So sweet and sad all at the same time. 
(Sorry, it's a little blurry because I didn't want to blind her with a massive flash in her eyes!)
We got home around 2:00 and for the remainder of the afternoon she complained constantly either that her eyes hurt or that they were bugging her. The doctor did say her eyes would likely be itchy and feel like they have sand in them for a couple of days. I can't even imagine how uncomfortable she was. But, thankfully a good nights sleep made a world of difference for her. Both yesterday and today have been 1000 times better. She complains occasionally that her eyes are bugging her, but other than that she seems totally back to normal.
Her eyes are quite red in the corners and a little swollen still. They say that her eyes will likely be red for 2-3 weeks (good thing I took the Valentine's Day pictures on Tuesday!). We go back into the eye doctor for a check-up next Thursday and then again in another month. I am anxious to find out how successful the surgery was (her eyes look fabulously straight now and we haven't seen them shake at all since Wednesday) and find out what the next steps are for her vision.
No comments:
Post a Comment