Eye Surgery

For those of you who were unaware, my oldest daughter has dealt with some eye issues since she was less than a year old. Around 9 months old, I was driving Morgan to daycare and looked in the back seat to check on her. She was staring off into space and not moving. I called her name and she didn’t respond. I began panicking and called her name over and over but she didn’t move or even look in my direction. Then I noticed one of her eyes drifting off and up. I was terrified and immediately pulled over. I thought she was having a stroke!

By the time I got around to her door and opened it, she was completely back to normal and happy to see me. I thought it was very strange. I got back into the truck and continued my trek to daycare. Then it happened again. I was so worried that I called the doctor while I was sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic. They told me that I should take her to the emergency room. Just what a panicking mom wants to hear while she’s stuck in traffic!

We eventually made it to the hospital, after she had several “episodes” on the way. They ran a bunch of tests but, ultimately, couldn’t find anything wrong. So they sent us home and suggested that we follow up with a Neurologist.

The Neurologist also ran a bunch of tests and everything came back normal. They suggested that we follow up with an Ophthalmologist. After weeks of worrying about my baby, we finally got some answers! It was a simple wandering eye. No strokes. No seizures. I was so relieved. However, this brought up some new concerns.

• Is this fixable?
• Will she always have this problem?
• Will it get better? Worse?
• Is she going to be teased about this?
• Will this impact her vision?

So many questions. And so many unknowns!

The doctor basically told us that we could try treating it by attempting to strengthen her eye muscles. In order to do this, we would need to dilate her “good eye”, so the wandering eye would have to work harder to focus. Essentially, the eye muscles would get stronger and be able to keep her eye in the correct place.

We spent almost 4 years doing this. And the drops to dilate her eyes burned, so you can imagine how fun that was to put into her eye 3-4 times/week. For 4 years. Not only was it terrible for Morgan, but it was hard on us as parents to have to hold her down and torture her with these “fire eye drops” multiple times a week. Plus, it made her extra sensitive to sunlight, so she always had to have sunglasses when we were outside.

We knew that surgery may be an option, but wanted to try everything else before we resulted to that. Fast forward to this year. Morgan is in 1st grade now. She is starting to struggle in school because her eyes do not always focus on things together. This has caused her eye pain, double vision and headaches. Surgery was suggested earlier this year. So we scheduled it for the end of summer.

That brings us to today. Morgan had her eye surgery yesterday. The doctor basically went behind both eyes and tightened the muscles on each side. It’s a pretty common procedure. However, we were told that a second or even third surgery is required in some cases. Fingers crossed, this is the only surgery she will need.

I cannot imagine how parents handle more serious medical conditions with their children. My heart truly goes out to families that are dealing with unimaginable illnesses/conditions/accidents. This procedure has been difficult for Morgan. She was really nervous about everything and I was dreading the anesthesia part of it. But, I’m incredibly grateful that her condition wasn’t something more serious.

I was allowed to go into the operating room with her, and stay with her until she was completely asleep. This is where I lost it a little. Standing next to my first baby while they gave her drugs to go to sleep was really hard. But the worst part was walking out, and leaving her in there. Trusting these people with her life. And knowing that every surgery comes with a risk. It was terrifying and brought me to tears.

Thank God, surgery went well. There were no complications and it wasn’t a super long procedure. However, she did have a hard time waking up. She was very crabby and immediately started complaining about the pain. I was a little surprised with the amount of pain that she seemed to be in, to be honest. The doctor made it seem like it would be very minimal. That was not the case. I knew she wasn’t feeling well when she refused the popsicle that they offered! She was really looking forward to that part!

We were finally discharged and started the long drive home. (Did I mention that we had to do this surgery at Children’s Hospital in Detroit? That was 3 hours from our new house!) Morgan slept for a good majority of the drive home. We got lunch, gave her the antibiotic eye drops – which apparently burned like hell – got ice cream, and made it home before dinner time.

She is doing much better today – although she still hates the eye drops. And she did wake up with her eyes crusted shut, which caused some serious panic. But that was solved with a warm wash cloth and was completely normal. The pain level seems to be better today too. She will be back at school tomorrow, and is a little nervous about that as well. Her eyes are extremely red, and will remain like that for a couple weeks while everything heals. She is worried that she will be made fun of at school and doesn’t like to look at herself in the mirror because “her red eyes are scary”. I told her I thought it was cool and she could tell the kids at her school that she was a vampire. That didn’t go over well…

I was a little unsure if I was going to share this story or not. But I thought it might give someone some insight on what to expect if they ever needed the same surgery. And I was also wanting to know if anyone else has been through this? If so, what was your experience like? Did you need another surgery? How long did it take the redness to go away? Did it impact your vision at all? Is there anything I can do to help minimize the teasing that she may experience? (The thought of this breaks my heart.)

I’ll keep you posted on her recovery. The last thing I will mention is that Children’s Hospital in Detroit was amazing. The staff was great, the building was beautiful and our whole visit was a good experience. My only negative comment is that their parking structure is a disaster. If you’ve been there, you totally know what I mean! But, if you have a child that needs a medical procedure done, I would highly recommend going there. (Is this when I ask them to pay me for ad space? haha)

Oh yea… one last thing! Please be kind to children (and adults for that matter) with disabilities/differences – mental and physical alike. People do not choose these things and people/kids can be incredibly cruel sometimes. Instead, teach your kids to ask questions and be nice. There is nothing wrong with being curious. There is something wrong with being intentionally mean.

Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Crystal