Surgery #6

   Here I am, again, sitting in the waiting room waiting for Sadie to come out of surgery.  This is the last place I thought I would be this summer.  But as usual Sadie makes her own plans and I just do what she says.
   The summer has been full of eye infections.  Luckily, no ulcers like we have had in the past, but many scratches to the cornea that led to surface infections. It all started the week before school was out (so the last week of May).  She started poking herself in that eye and grabbing her cheek/eye area.  If you recall from my past posts, Sadie does not feel her eyes or her face for that matter.  So poking them doesn't hurt and she doesn't realize that she shouldn't do it.  It used to be a huge problem when she was a baby, but over the last year or so she has left them alone.  The beginning of June we started to visiting her eye Dr.  We also took her to the ENT to make sure it was not an ear or throat infection, we also even tried the dentist thinking that maybe it was her teeth that was bothering her.  All those appt's led to nothing, no reason for the poking.  It's just one of Sadie's little quirks.  However, this quirk can lead to big problems.
   As we continued to visit her eye Dr (frequently I might add) and tried many different ointments and washes, it became clear that we really needed to do something with this eye.  That's when surgery was mentioned. The Dr stated that if we couldn't get this eye infection under control that he wanted to do this fairly rare surgery that involved an amniotic sac  "band aid", sewing them half shut temporarily and some other stuff.  That night Sadie and I had a heart to heart chat about how we really don't need more surgery and she really needs to leave her eyes alone so that they heal.  She listened, for the most part.  Over the next week or two her eyes healed up and were looking good.  The eye Dr said there was no need for that surgery anymore. Yay!  But he wanted us to go to a plastic eye surgeon because of her bottom eyelids.  Sadie's eyelashes turn in because of where her eyelids lay.  Her eyelashes are scratching her cornea.  This is not new news.  We saw this same plastic surgeon when she was about 6 mo old or so for this same problem, but at that time he wanted to wait to do anything until she was older.
  The next week we got into see the surgeon and then surgery was scheduled for the next week.  Which leads us to today.  Her official surgery was called bilateral Entropion repair.  All they are going to do is make a small incision under both eyelids do whatever it is that they do and put some dissolving stitches in there.
  The surgeon hast two outcomes that he wants from this surgery. 1. the lashes will stop scratching her eyeballs and causing infections and 2. maybe open the eye itself up some more.  Sadie has squinty eyes.  I think it is more of a trait that she got from my husband. But squinty, plus a paralyzed side of face doesn't make a great combination.

 

 This was in the PACU. You can tell Sadie was not awake yet as she let me hold and play with her hand.

Now she's awake and happy.  Hasn't cried or complained.

 

Headed home!  She rocked this surgery out. No complications or issues.  She's becoming a pro at surgery.  I hate that she's had so many, but so thankful that she handles it so well.

 

And these are her "new" eyes.  They are wide open. Her eye lashes are no longer on her eyeball.  She looks so different to me!  But still just as cute as can be.

 

 

 

 

 

Random highlights of the summer

*Our neighbors house caught on fire.  My girls and some of the neighborhood girls wanted to help so they set up a lemonade stand. They raised over a $100.  These girls rock and have a huge heart.

 

 

*The girls found a snake.  Chloe was dared to pick it up.  Gross!  But look at that face. She loved that she took the dare and did it.  That's when I know she is her fathers daughter. Cause I would NEVER do that.
 

*Chloe was in a parade for girl scouts.

 

These guys waved as she rode by.

 

*We went to the beach.
 

 

Sadie had school this day so she didn't get to go, but I'm pretty sure she was ok with this.  She is still not a fan of the heat and gets a little a crazy when over heated.  Plus, with the fact that she doesn't feel her eyes and blink appropriately, I would hate for sand to get in there.  We already have enough eye issues going on this summer as it is.

 

 

*I jammed my finger and ripped the tendon off the bone. Really? Ain't nobody got time for this!  I have to keep this splint on 24/7 for 6-8 wks.  If I accidentally bend it while changing it to the other splint, I have to start the 6-8 weeks over again.  I originally wasn't going to do anything, as I thought it was just jammed, it couldn't be that bad.  Well, guess I was wrong.  The swelling got bad and I had to take my wedding ring off cause my finger was turning blue. 

 

 

 

*Slinkey got hit by a car.

 

 

What a day that was.  Aubrie accidentally let him out of the back yard and since he is a basset hound, his nose took over and off he ran.... right in front of a car.  The girls witnessed the whole thing.  I hear this blood curdling scream from Chloe as she runs in my house and screams that Slinkey got hit by a car and is dead.  My heart stopped, I ran outside. Slinkey was not dead, but he was hobbling pretty darn bad over to the side of the road.  I went over to him (along with a bazillion other people and 6 little girls that witnessed the accident). Slinkey was holding up his leg and blood was dripping from it. I sent the girls all over to a friends house and Slinkey, Sadie and I went to the vet.  Sure enough he had an open ulna fracture and lots of lacerations. He earned himself a night in the hospital, lots of stitches, and the "cone of shame".  He's a lucky dog that he didn't get hurt more.

 

 

Waterpark

  We went on an impromptu weekend vacation.  Nothing to fancy. Just wanted to spend time as a family.  Just somewhere out of town to get our minds off of the dramatic life that sometimes surrounds us.  Sometimes I think I get so wrapped up in the everyday bump and grind of life and work, and the electronics, and the drama of other individuals and all the medical research, Dr appts and therapies, that I sometimes forget one of my most important jobs... my kids and husband.
  Friday night I told my husband we were pretending we were rich for the weekend and we were just going to go and have fun and not think about the money.  That's what we did.  At first it took a little bit to figure out what everyone would enjoy and we had to make the most out of our time restraint, and even though we were going to pretend to be rich we still had to be a little realistic.  We took the girls to Soaring Eagle indoor waterpark and hotel.  Somewhat close, somewhat cheap, easy access for wheelchairs, no extreme heat, activities for all ages and sizes.  It was fun.  All of us had a good time.  It was a much needed breath of fresh air.

 

We didn't tell the girls where we were going. After I checked in and gave them the brochure there was so much excitement and happiness. It was so worth waiting to tell them (even though there was a lot of complaining in the car on the way up "Are we there yet?, I'm hungry, I have to pee, I'm bored."  You now the usual stuff kids say that drive parents nuts).

 

Here they wait so patiently for mom and dad to get ready and for their crazy mom to stop taking pictures. 

 

 

 

   The first day we immediately put Sadie in the lazy river.  We thought floating down a river would be relaxing to her.  We were WRONG! She hated every minute of it.  She screamed the entire time and then we put her on the lounge chair where she screamed the rest of the time we were at the park that night.  She did her regular "frog pose temper tantrum".  In hind sight, it was not the lazy river that she hated, it was the life vest that she had to wear.  The lifeguards wouldn't let her in without one on.  You would have thought it was a torture device for her.  The pic below was taken in between screams when it appeared that she was calm.  Looks can be deceiving!

 

 

Many fun things for the girls to do. 

Waterslides!!

 

 

This was the big waterslide.  The one that twirls around outside and then dumps you in the lazy river.  Aubrie was scared to death of this slide from the minute we got there.  We'd ask if she wanted to go on it and she would say "NO WAY"! All of a sudden she grabbed this two person inner tube  and said "lets go Chloe".  And she and Chloe drug this huge tube up 4 stories of stairs and down they came!  I was so proud of her for conquering that fear.  Even though she said she hated it, she went on it a couple more times. ;)  I asked Chloe later when we were alone, if Aubrie freaked out at the top before they came down, she said "yes, but I told there was only one way down and she HAD to go down." Sisterly pressure and love!

 

 

Aubrie wanted to try to include Sadie "all by herself".  We wouldn't let Aubrie do to much with Sadie cause we didn't want any drowning accidents.  But this was one thing that Sadie liked and couldn't drown. 

 

Rocking climbing wall. You climb up and then fall in.  Chloe never made it very far up, but she tried and that's all that counts.  It took her a long time to build up her nerve to do it.

 

 

The big bucket of water would fill and then spill over.  Not sure how much the girls liked that, but at least they participated... once.  Lol

 

Day 2 we started Sadie off by just letting her chillax in the lounge chair.  This was much more her style.  Much more happier then she was on day 1.

 

 

She chilled for a while and then daddy took her in the water sprinklers.

 

 

Wasn't her favorite, but she tolerated it.

 

 

Finally, Sadie's favorite activity. The hot tub!  I think she was suppose to have a life vest on but they either didn't see us or choose not to say anything.  Either way Sadie just relaxed, kicked back and put her legs up.  She cracks me up!

 

 

 

Daddy worked in a very short therapy session where she practiced standing.  Look at that form: straight legs, back and chin up, no arching.  She is working so hard at therapy these days.

 

After the hot tub and "therapy session", it was time for her to eat.  She ate and fell sound asleep.

 

 

Then the ride home.  I'd say it was a pretty successful, fun weekend.