Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Surgery (Ptosis Repair)

Willon was born with a droopy eyelid. Rather than let it affect his vision thus affecting his brain development we decided, through our wonderful pediactric opthomologist Deborah Lenahan, to have it repaired sooner rather than later.

Willon seemed to take most of it in stride except not being able to eat or drink for so long. It was easy to distract him once we got to the surgical center but the ride there produced a few tears. Once there he discovered a new toy I bought him and all went well after that.

Here he is in pre-op, getting weighed and measured. The nurses thought he was pretty cute you can imagine.

All dressed down and hamming for the camera. I tell him to give me a smile and this is what I get.

We played with his new train for almost the whole hour we had to sit there waiting our turn. He got a little restless so I pulled out the new school bus. This augmented the train set quite well, fortunately.

The Doc came in to talk to us briefly. Willon was a little shy but she got him to give her five. Spoke with the anesthesiologist after that.

Just when I thought he couldn't take waiting any longer I turned on the TV to PBS. What do you think was playing but his favorite new online activity, Dinosaur Train! He's never seen the show, of course, as we have no TV reception at our house. It illicited reactions from him I have never seen. Usually he'd be shouting the show play-by-play to me as he watched. This whole set of expressions had me rolling on the floor laughing (inside). I've never seen him do any of this before.

His surgical nurse came in to introduce herself. I took their picture, gave him a kiss and off he went - kinda sudden-like - but he never looked back.

Rob came to meet me in the meantime and we waited together. Willon was the third person in that morning. Rob and I sat and watched as a full half dozen families were called in to see their loved ones before it was our turn. That was a little disconcerting but we waited patiently enough.

When they finally called us in and brought us back to see him Willon was still asleep from the anesthesia. He looked so tiny in that big ol' bed.


This next one is a little graphic. His eye was pretty swollen. They don't go very deep when they put them under that way and I noticed he was frowning in his sleep. Poor guy.

He woke up in a frenzied state. I was more than a little worried about him but the nurse said he could have nu-nu as much as he wanted and he did.

My boy was a real trooper today. He had some kind of hyper reaction to the Demoral later but for the most part he took the whole experience in stride.

Later, after he'd calmed down, taken something for pain, and we were back in the car he had something to eat. Poor kid was starving! I gave him pretzels and cookies to start then took him out for lunch. But first - LOL - we had to stop at the bank.

Lastly, a special thanks to Mitzi at Dr. Lenahan's office for her hard work getting our insurance and appointments squared away. Mitzi rocks. 

2 comments:

kristin1970 said...

This had me crying... I'm glad he is doing better.

Unknown said...

What a journey. I love all the pictures and videos.