Other December 2015 News/ And Into the New Year

So in between the eye surgery and multiple eye appointments we also had some other excitement in December.
The best news being SP's daddy received two job offers and accepted one that keeps us local- so no moving, no changing schools and no changing doctors or hospitals! Yay! Oh yeah, having a steady income is also a nice plus ;)

SP also had two appointments with her Rheumatologist, and while things have improved with her wrist

she still has some inflammation in there and while her neck has improved from 15% to 60% range of motion the Dr would like to see her up to 90% or more. So in addition to Methotrexate(MTX) SP started on Humira as well. SP will continue to get the MTX as weekly injections and the Humira she will receive as bi-monthly(twice a month) injections.

And a MRI was ordered for SP for her neck, that is scheduled the end of January.

One of our appointments was on Christmas Eve and the hospital staff went around giving out stuffed animals!
How sweet and definitely cheered SP since she was not overjoyed to hear about the MRI.
She picked out a huge Purple Care Bear- a big thank you to Dupont and the wonderful donors who made those gifts possible!

Christmas also happened and our kids love Christmas :)

Visiting with Santa

Cookies!

SP's favorite gifts were new stuffed friends

After Christmas we were blessed and greatly surprised with free tickets for a bus trip to see Disney on Ice!
The kids had a wonderful time and I must admit it was magical!

And some Bear A Build gift cards as Christmas gifts also made for a fun winter break

The year started off with a great 1st Day Hike at our local state park. Chilly and fun!

We received her monthly Humira shipment and gave her the 1st injection on Saturday. She did throw up the next day, but we cannot say that was from the medicine or possibly from reflux. On Monday she felt great and she never stopped being her happy, bouncy self.

We have another eye follow-up next week and the MRI the end of January, but things are quieting down- which is wonderful after eye surgery and 6 appointments in December, we're all looking forward to some downtime.

December 3, 2015: PCO eye surgery

I've been dreadful about updating, I would love to blame it all on the holidays, surgery, tons of appointments, illnesses, etc...but it wasn't just that, some of it was sheer laziness and yes, it felt good to be lazy and waste too much time on FB and other meaningless things.

On to SP news! (warning tons of photos ahead)
She had her surgery December 3rd and she did absolutely amazing! No fear on her part going in and waking up from anesthesia was perfect! She was sleepy but did not get sick. I repeat she did not get sick! Whatever the anesthesia doctor did we need to make certain that happens again if she needs anymore surgeries.

The hospital was ready for Christmas!

SP watching cartoons with Eeyore waiting to be taken back to the OR.

After surgery

What SP had done
If you remember she had cataract surgery in January and that went well, but she suffered a common side effect/complication from it - posterior capsule opacification (PCO) which occurred when lens epithelial cells remaining after cataract surgery have grown on the capsule- so it's like looking through dirty glass

In August she had eye muscle surgery and a PCO laser procedure, but then she suffered a JIA flare-up and uveitis in her eye. So anything the laser procedure helped was gone. This time the surgeon went in and cut out a section of the PCO so even if she does suffer inflammation again it won't close up and cause that haze.

here's a great picture of what will be done

The ride home was uneventful and SP was ready to go about life as a child, forget that she just had surgery mere hours ago
Chowing down and watching TV

The one thing SP really doesn't like- besides patching and eye drops is the night shield!

The day after surgery we headed back up to Dupont and got awesome news, everything looked amazing.
SP was doing great!

The next week we had another follow-up and Dr Salvin was visibly excited by how well she was doing, we all were. Little girl is rocking it!

We had another follow-up on Dec 30, where we found out - surprise! all her squinting isn't from the procedure not working or her vision decreasing- nope :) Her vision has improved so much her prescription was actually hurting her eye! Time for a new lens (SP's left eye has perfect vision so that lens is just plain plastic no prescription)
So you understand how amazing this is, before the surgery her vision was at 20/200 (that is legal blindness in that eye) now with a corrected lens it's at 20/25. The Dr had hoped to get to her 20/60 if we were lucky.

So for now we get to see our girl with no glasses and even more exciting for her- no more patching! WOW!