August 20, 2015: PCO Laser and Eye Muscle Surgery Day

Surgery Day arrived much faster than I thought it would, but then again most of the summer has flown by as well.

All routine, we drove up, checked in, got called back, SP kissed and gave hugs to Daddy and J-Man and back we went and waited..and waited...and waited some more.

Actually we only waited around an hour, during which poor SP asked to use the restroom about 4-5 times, that was the only sign of her nervousness. SP is one cool little lady.

Then it was time to go back for the posterior capsule opacification (PCO) laser procedure, the one she had been dreading due to her being awake for it. Can I just say that she impressed not only mom but the entire team back there! She sat still, followed directions and it was over within minutes. I'm serious, it was very quick.

And then came the time for me to kiss my sweet girl, whisper, "I love you" and she was drifting off to sleep.

After I changed out of my surgery gear, the anesthesiologist called it a bunny suit minus the ears, I located my DH and J-man, dropped off SP's bag of clothes and went in search of lunch.
Only when returning from a very quick lunch did I notice I had lost my fitness tracker. The bracelet had been popping open and I think when I pulled off the bunny suit it went with it.

Thankfully surgery did not take long and we were back in a little room talking over how everything went, drops, restrictions, etc...
Everything went wonderfully!
Though I admit I didn't really care for my husband and the Dr joking about the laser procedure being similar to a video game...whether that is true or not. Pow, Pow, Zap :/

Restrictions were simple, don't get anything nasty into that eye:
no pools/waterparks
no sand/beaches
no mulch/playgrounds

Shortly afterwards Daddy was able to go back and see our little girl, then he swapped out so I could go back.

Overall SP was doing great! No complaints of pain, just a tad groggy sipping away on an Icee (the hospital has an Icee Machine right in the post-op area) Got to catch up with a super sweet nurse, whose son is also 7 and sadly also suffers from JRA/JIA. We met her during SP's band keratopathy surgery back in November 2014 and have had an opportunity to come across her a few times at the hospital.

Once SP was moved to a different area of post-op things took a downturn, she insisted that she needed the bathroom- with SP and her nervous bladder this didn't surprise me, but she was very insistent about needing to go NOW. She was nauseous and wanted to hit the bathroom- poor girl. She ended up getting sick 3 separate times, and the last time she also got a nosebleed. Anesthesia was paged and the Dr came over shortly.
-We have always been thankful to have this great children's hospital in our state, but even with Delaware being a small state the drive is still a good hour and 15 minutes....on days without rush hour or beach traffic ....and the Dr was concerned about us being that far away in case of complications so there was talk of us going over to the Ronald McDonald House. Dr Salvin was then paged, consulted and then the decision left up to us. Honestly I didn't want to make that call. I wanted the doctors to tell us what to do. DH and I talked and we agreed to take SP home.

We left the hospital and got to McDonald's about 5 minutes away (we felt dreadful but it was after 5 pm, we hadn't eaten for hours and we were facing rush hour traffic on the way home so we had to get food for the rest of us) while in the drive-thru poor SP threw up again :/ Thankfully we got everything cleaned up and she fell asleep on the way home.

Rush hour traffic was beyond terrible! So thankful SP slept because we barely crawled along for a solid hour. Once home SP perked up and started demanding food- sorry girl crackers and Gatorade had to do until we knew that little tummy was settled.

By the next day SP was up and ready to go! We could already tell a big difference and best news of all? no pain!

Saturday, just 2 days after surgery SP was ready to go shopping.....little girl is a shopper just like her Daddy.

Tuesday we had her follow-up eye appointment and it went great! Her eye is healing well, no signs of inflammation (YES!) and we could discontinue the antibiotic/steroid eye drop and lower the prednisone drop down to 3X a day and then continue to slowly wean that one down. Follow-up is Sept 15th and we will talk glasses ( or not!!!! she might not need them!) then :D






Wednesday was SP's 7th Birthday and not only was little girl feeling great but her eye improves in appearance every day.