Eye Muscle Surgery

Oaklynn had Strabismus Surgery on Thursday morning. Because her brain can not control her body, it affects her eyes as well. Her eyes are crossed quite often and she can't help it. We decided to do the surgery to hopefully help her see better. By doing this surgery, she wont be able to cross her eyes, even if she wanted to. They loosen the inner eye muscle so that you can no longer pull your eyes together.

We were the first appointment of the day. They go by age, (because you have to fast and so they have the little ones go first) so since she was the youngest, we got to go first. We had to check into the hospital at 6:30am. We got there and signed in and filled out all the paperwork.

(Above picture is in the waiting room)

After we got called back, we went into a triage looking room with chairs and lots of curtains. I sat in the big chair with her in my lap and they did blood pressure, weight and all the fun stuff. The Anesthesiologist came and explained what was going to happen. We were originally told that we could be with her until she had the mask on and went to sleep but the anesthesiologist said that since it's a sterile environment, this was the furthest we would go. He left and her Dr. who was doing the surgery came to talk to us. Explained the surgery to us and asked if we had any questions. He said that he would only push us going back with her if they thought she would have a hard time without us. I told him that she would do fine, it was that I was worried that people wouldn't understand her limitations (that you can't leave her on the table and expect her to be fine) and other things. He said that they work with special needs kids all the time. To be honest, that didn't reassure me because Rett syndrome is so different and people aren't familiar with it. The nurse came and took Oaklynn. Of course she was all smiles and did just fine leaving us.

We waited in the waiting room for about 40 minutes before the doctor came out to let us know that everything went well. He explained recovery to us and gave us directions on how to take care of her. Right as he was walking away, a nurse came to get us to be with Oaklynn as she woke up. She was still asleep when we got there but shortly after, started waking up. They took the IV out of her and let me go into a dark room (because her eyes were sensitive after surgery) and hold her.

The nurse that took her from us to go back to surgery said that she gave her so many smiles and believed that she was giving her kisses because she kept leaning in with an open mouth and kissing her cheek. We both said, "Yep, that sounds like Oaklynn"! The nurse said that she wanted to keep her and watch her until she got some fluid and kept it down. She came back about 8 minutes later and said we could go ahead and take her home (even thought she hadn't even woken up yet). She stayed asleep the whole way home.

When we got home, we put her to bed and she slept about another hour. When she started waking up, we went in to get her and just cuddled on the couch with her. She was crying blood. It looked like straight blood, not like watered down blood. It was really sad to go into her room and see blood all over her sheets from her eyes. She had a REALLY rough time while the anesthesia was still in her system. I think she was just still really confused.

By the end of the night, we started seeing a couple smiles here and there but she still wasn't herself. It took a couple days before she was herself again.We let her watch a lot of Mickey Mouse and since it has such bring colors, I put some sunglasses on.

 Here she is a couple days after the surgery, finally giving me some normal smiles again...

 And here is a picture of her eyes. You can't see her right one very well but this is the best I could get. You can see the blood red color in her eye. They said it would be blood shot for a couple weeks and I was just thinking a little redness. I didn't realized they would look like they are bleeding!

We go back and see the doctor for a follow up on Friday morning. We wont know how effective the surgery was for a couple months. It it didn't work, he may have to go back and do it again, but I am positive hoping that everything went well.

We are SO grateful to everyone who prayed for Oaklynn and for us. For the meals that were brought to us, the gifts brought to Oaklynn and the kind words of encouragement. We are grateful for our family and friends and for the love and support. THANK YOU!!!