Soren's Surgery

Soren's eye surgery was yesterday and it went very well!

However, the day itself was a little nutty. We had a plan. Both kids were off from school. So we decided to take Moira along with us, bring the DVD player, my laptop with a Math and Reading computer game for her, books, and activities. Children's Hospital Los Angeles even has a McDonald's. We figured we were set.

We had to get up at 4 am to get to the hospital by 5:30. Both Aaron and I are fighting colds, so we slept horribly. Then Moira ended up waking up at 3am with a TERRIBLE earache. After giving her Motrin, we headed off the hospital.

We got to Children's, where everyone was terrific. They got Soren checked in and into pre-op quickly. They gave him "happy juice" to relax him and help lessen any seperation anxiety (which Soren doesn't really experience). However, it did relax him enough so that he pooped. I, of course, lef the diaper bag downstairs with Aaron and Moira. I went to get it and saw that Moira was still in a lot of pain. Aaron gave her Tylenol to see if that would help. I went back up, changed the boy, and he was headed into surgery by 7:30.

Soren's surgery was supposed to take about 2 1/2 hours, so I got my pager from the waiting room and we zipped over to the ER to see if we could get Moira's ear looked at. The ER appeared to be empty. Aaron and Mo went in to have her checked by the nurse. Everything seemed to be going like clockwork. Then they called me in to the ER waiting room. Moira's face was splotchy from crying so much. I'd never seen her like this. It was time for more Motrin, so we gave her the concentrated drops we carry in the backpack for airline travel. That's when we got the news that there were about 5 patients ahead of Moira who had been waiting for 2 hours on the other side of the ER. Ugh!

Then a little before 9:00, my hospital pager went off--way sooner than I expected! I quickly walked back to the other side of the hospital and waited to be called up to post-op. There was Soren, conked out. His doctor said everything went perfectly. He wanted Soren to take his time waking up. The nurse said it would take about another hour. I told her about Moira being in the ER. So she told me go back but to return by 9:30.

I quickly walked back to the ER. The Motrin had kicked in and Moira looked-and felt-much better. By now we were all starving. I checked at the desk and there were still a number of kids-with more serious problems-in front of us. We decided to just go to Mo's pediatrician that afternoon and to get some McDonald's!

Those hash browns and that Coke were SO DELICIOUS!!!!

I then went back to post-op where Soren woke up VERY SLOWLY (in hindsight, Moira and Aaron probably could have returned to the ER, but oh well.) We finally got out of there a little before 11. Moira got her ear checked and did, indeed, have a bad infection.

In the end, I think Soren did the best of all of us. He was smiling and giggling the rest of the day. His eyes are very red and bloody looking in the corner where the muscle was cut and then reattached. This redness should last around 3 weeks. We have to put in drops four times a day for a week to prevent infection. And for 24 hours we had to make sure he didn't rub his eyes and tear the stitches, so we had restraints to immobilize his arms. It looked like some sort of torture. Moira asked if it was punishment. But now that he's past that point, his arms are free!

His eyes look really straight, which is pretty darn cool. He seems to be looking at things longer and trying to figure out what this new world he's looking at is. I can't even imagine what this is like for him. I just hope his brain is figuring out how to get these two eyes to work together. And I'm excited to see what else may change with this new vision.

Amy