Eye Surgery

Earlier this week Nolan went in for a surgery on his eyes. He's had an eye turn for 3 years now and a certain percentage of the turn didn't appear to be improving so they suggested surgery. I was so nervous about it, but that the same time felt pretty good about the fact that they'd been essentially collecting data on his eyes for 3 years and this is what they felt was best. I am also lucky that one of my best friends, Emily's son had the same surgery two years ago when he was even younger than Nolan and had just recently been seen for an eye turn. Also, our across the street neighbor has the same eye issue and has had several surgeries to correct it. Both of them reassured me so much and boosted my confidence that we were doing the right thing.

I scheduled the surgery because we had talked about getting it done before I went back to work (in case I didn't go back at all and lost our good insurance) and then Justin started going all papa bear on us and getting nervous. He wanted to get in to see the doctor again just in case. It ended up that if we wanted to see the doctor we'd have to push the surgery back and I talked him out of it :)

The morning of the surgery getting extra snuggles from his little brothers ❤

The days leading up to the surgery were so hard because Nolan is so smart that we knew we couldn't really "trick" him (nor would we really want to), but we also knew that he might freak out if we told him the whole truth (and he can be prettttty stubborn). We ended up basically telling him that we were going to see his eye doctor at a different place this time and that he would take a nap and when he woke up his eyes would be fixed. Then the day before we added that they were going to put a cool mask on his face and he'd be like Darth Vader.

Everyone at Primary Children's was absolutely amazing and made a potentially scary experience for a little boy much less scary. He didn't really want to put on the clothes they gave him, but Justin promised him Transformer battles if he did. Then they brought him some Star Wars toys to play with. Then another nurse came in and let him smell as many scents (for the gas mask) that he wanted so he could choose his favorite.

One little side story. My old manager at Ancestry.com, Steve, lost his little boy Max a few years ago. He had downs syndrome and a heart condition. Max loved red firetrucks so periodically their family will donate little firetrucks to PCH. Well just two days before Nolan's surgery they posted this picture (L) so you can imagine how my heart melted when I saw which car Nolan chose to go back to the OR in 💗 I commented on the Murray's post with this picture and how Nolan's smile riding in that car eased my worries. Steve's wife wrote back telling me how much joy it brought to her heart!

Nolan told the anesthesiologist that he was NOT going to fall asleep. The doc told us with a chuckle that he hadn't lost that battle yet.

It was hard for us to watch him go without us; We both worried so much that he'd be scared and we wouldn't be there to comfort him. But we felt a little better after he turned the corner (where we couldn't follow anymore) and happily yelled, "Bye!!"

Dr. Peterson did tell us though that when he got to the operating room he paused, looked around, then started baaaacking out of the room haha. 

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Justin was especially nervous as we waited, he sure loves his boys. But both of us were surprised by how quickly they came to let us know the surgery went well! As soon as they told us Nolan was waking up we jumped up to go see him. Several people warned us that kids are often bears when they wake up and scream and kick, etc so not to be alarmed. But Nolan was seriously so sweet! He was definitely a little bit confused and cried when he told us he couldn't see anything (which about ripped my heart out).

I tried to make it better by telling him we were going to go home soon and he could pick his favorite spot to watch his favorite shows. He sobbed and said, "How can I watch TV if I can't see?!!" Poor little guy.

He fell asleep again in recovery so we just waited until he woke up. Oh and we promised him that he wouldn't get a shot (because they would do it after he fell asleep anyway), but I forgot about having to take it out. Those nurses though are awesome and distracted him well enough that he didn't even know he every had an IV in!

He threw up once at home which was to be expected and he complained of pain a bit the first day. I've heard that it feels like there's sand in your eyes and you can't rub it. He did pretty well not rubbing his eyes and usually felt better with a cold cloth on them. Seriously though, he was so sweet and thoughtful that first day, even to Branson! His eyes were really bloodshot for a few days and he had a lot of gunk in his eyes and cried bloody tears which was a little disconcerting - but other than that the recovery didn't seem to be too bad.

By far the worst part (and that's according to him!) was having to put in eye drops 3 times a day. He hated it, but just asked if he could hold his brothers hands while I put them in. It was super sweet ❤ We did the put the drops in closed eyes and let him blink them in method. There was still a lot of crying and flailing at first but by the end of the week he did it without fuss. I'm super proud of him!

First time getting out of the house after the surgery - a walk to the mailbox with little brother.

About to get drops in.

Mom and Dad are SO proud of you Nolan!!