Charlie had Eye surgery on January 19th. The surgery was to correct his strabismus, which is a fancy name for lazy or wandering eye. The doctors were hoping that his prescription glasses would correct his lazy eye. Which is what happened to mine, when I was a kid. (my eye only drifts when I'm not wearing glasses or contacts) But for Charlie, even after increasing the prescription strength of his glasses, his eye was still wandering with the glasses on. If this is left untreated at a young age it could cause serious issues with his depth perception and in the long run he would favor one eye and he could eventually lose the vision in his lazy eye. (we've worked so hard with patching to improve the vision in this eye and it has been working!)
Anyway, they say the surgery is pretty routine. It still made us a little nervous. They had to put some sort of stretcher on the eye so they can reach the muscles on the sides. they relaxed the muscle on one side and tightened it on the other side. Charlie was under anesthesia during the surgery. And I just had to wait outside.
So this is how it went...We got up nice and early and got everything ready, when it was time to go, I pulled Charlie out of bed. It was still dark but he woke up happy. My mom was coming down to stay with Miles so Max could go to the surgery too. She got stuck in some bad traffic from an accident and we needed to be at the hospital by 7:15am So Charlie and I left, Max stayed behind for just an extra 15 minutes or so until my mom got there. It was still dark once we checked in at the doctor's office. We waited in the waiting room. My cheerful little Charlie had no way to comprehend what was going to happen even though we had explained it to him quite a bit.
Once he was all checked in they gave him his very own sea creature quilt and Casey the Elk animal. He was enjoying all the attention. They also gave him a heated blanket which he thought was the greatest.
After this initial check in, we had a little more time to wait for the anesthesiologist, ( I just want to point out that I miraculously spelled the word anesthesiologist correctly the first time) I was excited since I had just started reading aloud Charlie's first chapter book (My Father's Dragon) the night before and he was loving it. I was happy we would have time to read more. Before I could pull out the book, the nurse offered him his own personal DVD player and a ton of DVDs to choose from. Charlie's eye's lit up while picking a DVD. I was a little disappointed. Partly because I've been waiting for years to read chapter books with Charlie and I wanted to have special time with him. He picked the Lego movie and was immediately sucked in. Max pointed out that it's his special day and it's okay for him to get this special treatment and we will have time to read later. haha!
He didn't even flinch when they came in and marked his face.
After a bit of waiting we said our good byes and they rolled Charlie away and we had to go to the waiting room. Max had to leave for a bit for a meeting with a contractor but I stayed in the waiting room. Researching preschools, preparing for Armenia, returning emails, and whatever else I could do in the hour and a half I was waiting. The surgeon came out and reassured me that everything went well. Although the way she said it made me think something went wrong...Like I think she said..."the surgery went pretty well" When someone is operating on my kid I want them to say the surgery went perfectly or better than expected. Those things make a difference. Anyway. She told me that Charlie was still sleeping and they wanted to monitor him as he woke up so I would be able to go see him in about 20 minutes. I was finally able to go in and I heard him crying before I got to him. It's such a sad feeling to have your child in pain and not know how it feels or what to do to help him. He kept having surges of crying followed by more sleeping. He already had a handful of medications but he kept crying about pain in his eye and his sore throat. They ended up giving him a little morphine which let him sleep for a little longer while he was in my arms and he could get more rest while the painkiller medications started working.
He was able to calm down and sleep a bit in my arms which was relieving to me since he could relax enough to sleep. It was also great that my mom was with Miles so I didn't have to worry about hurrying back to the babysitter. I could just enjoy holding and comforting my big boy.
When he woke up, he seemed to be in a lot less pain. We were released from the hospital They asked if we wanted to carry him or take him in a wheelchair. Max started to say he could carry him but then we quickly realized that Charlie would love a ride in a wheelchair so we decided on that.
We went home, Charlie was happy to see grandma, we made Strawberry waffles and sausage. The nurse warned us that Charlie may not have a huge appetite, especially after he had the breathing tube in. Charlie ate quite a bit, maybe not as much as usual but still quite a bit. It was the afternoon and he hadn't eaten since dinner the day before. We had fun with Grandma, and Charlie was acting more like his normal self. He still had surges of pain in his eye, and we had to keep the children's Tylenol coming. He slept pretty well through the night as well, except for the part when he woke up at 2 am to throw up. But he mostly made it to the toilet so that was a win.
He had a follow up appointment with his eye doctor the next day and she said his eye looks great and he shouldn't need anymore surgery on it. There is a 20% chance that the surgery can over correct the problem and it has to be fixed. He seems to be recovering well. He really hates his eye drops that he needs 3-4 times per day so we have to pin him down and put those in his eye while he's screaming so that isn't super fun. The whites of his eye were really red but are slowly turning white again. He hasn't had to have Tylenol in the last couple of days so he seems to be feeling a lot better. And he still has his vision so that's really great! We love our tough Charlie!
