Surgery Number Two

Preface:  I just got done typing this post and realized it's excessively looooong.  Just a warning...

I will post photos later but wanted to get the details down before they fade.  Adam was such an amazing trooper, I just can't get over it.  We needed to be at the hospital at 5:30 in the morning, for his 7:30 a.m. surgery.  We plucked him out of bed at about 5:00 and bundled him, still in jammies, in the car.  He asked if he could watch, "Wu-dawf" (Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer) on the way there.  You BET, buddy!  We timed it perfectly and arrived to check in right at 5:30.  Things moved quickly but slowly - they brought us back to the waiting/recovery bay right away this time and Adam changed into hospital jammies.  Then the long wait began.  Luckily our waiting room had a TV this time so Adam watched some TV, had dilating drops put in both eyes (which sting really terribly and he had to have them put in twice but even though he knew it was going to hurt, he did his best to hold still and let me administer them.  Those suckers have to burn because after they go in his eyes, and I hold him, the smell burns my nostrils!  Stu commented that you'd think some bright doctor/scientist out there could come up with a formula that doesn't hurt so bad), played with a hospital riding tractor toy, had pictures taken by mom and dad, met nurses, and nurse anesthetists, and anesthesiologists, and said hi to Dr. B.  Finally, they came to take us to the O.R.  Once again, we opted not to give Adam Versed and instead, I accompanied him into the O.R. and stayed with him while he was put under.  Before Surgery Number One, the anesthesiologist assured me that if we didn't give Adam Versed, he would be "traumatized" and be too afraid to be taken to the O.R. for Surgery Number Two.  Not my Adam I told her, and we were right.  He had no qualms at all about being walked down there.  After all, he's been looking forward to getting the "cwoud" out of his eye for weeks.

Stu and I couldn't stand to sit in the family waiting room again so we took a walk around the hospital grounds and then went to get something to eat.  I could not stomach eating anything but knew I'd need energy for what was to come so forced myself to eat most of a whole bagel with cream cheese and drink some Vitamin water.  We returned to the family waiting room for what we thought would likely be at least another hour.  I read for a little bit and then played on my iPod and it couldn't have been much more than a half hour when I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked up to see Dr. B in his hospital scrubs!  "You're already done?!" I exclaimed.  He was grinning from ear to ear and said that, yep, the second surgery doesn't take as long because you have less measurements to take since they are taken during the first surgery.  He explained to us that things went beautifully and gave us another (slightly gory) photo of his eye before and after.  Praise God - once again, there was his completely blind/cataract-filled eye on the left and a completely clear, red (because you can see through to the retina) pupil on the right, with the amazing, circular outline of the Intra-Ocular Lens implanted in there.

We were brought back to the recovery room right away and had an angel of a nurse named Mike caring for Adam and us as he woke up.  We'd been reminding Adam beforehand (he only asked once to eat and we told him he couldn't until after Dr. B. fixed his eye and he didn't even complain!), that he could have a popsicle after the surgery.  Adam didn't wake up as quickly this time but when he finally did, he groggily asked, with his right eye still closed and his left eye completely covered with gauze, tape, an eye patch, and more tape, "Can I have a possicle now?"  You BET, buddy!  Somehow he managed to eat most of an orange popsicle with his eyes closed.  At one point, while he was still waking up and pretty uncoordinated, he jerked the popsicle up toward his mouth and accidentally popped himself in the left eye, leaving an orange smudge. He made a noise like he was crying and then I realized he was laughing.  He mumbled to Stu and I, complete with those boy mouth-noises that I cannot replicate, "I went 'oof' and 'ppphhhtth' and hit mineself in mine eye!" and then laughed some more.

After his vital signs were monitored and deemed very good for about an hour, we were moved by wheelchair back to the waiting/recovery bays.  We had another very nice nurse, Kathy, caring for us there.  Stu held Adam so I could use the restroom and then I went to the hospital pharmacy to pick up Adam's oral steroid, steroid eye drops, antibiotic eye drops, and dilating eye drops.  Then we were ready to go home!  Stu sat in back with Adam and Adam fell back to sleep for the ride home.  We were home by about noon and Adam was starved.  He ate and ate and ate (things like animal crackers and graham crackers and apple slices) for about an hour.  Other than being pretty slowed down, he seemed like his normal self.  He took a good two and a half hour nap in the afternoon and ate a pretty good dinner.  Stu had a weight lifting meet he needed to go to that night so I wanted things to be very low-key.  I popped in the movie "Mulan" and doled out the popcorn Stu had made in preparation for his being gone.  Adam didn't eat his popcorn (strange for him) and suddenly stood up at 6:30 and proclaimed, "I'm going to mine bed where it's safe".  I figured he was just still tired from being under anesthesia that morning but when I went to go tuck him in, I felt him and realized he was burning up!  They'd told us that he might run a fever of around 100 degrees but if it was higher than that, to call right away.  I rushed for the thermometer and my heart started to pound when I saw it read almost 102.5 degrees.  I immediately called the ophthalmology clinic and got the on-call resident right away.  When I described the situation and mentioned that Max had come down with a virus and a high fever two days before, she assured me that Adam had likely caught Max's virus and the fever had nothing to do with his surgery that day.  She told me to give him some medicine and her only advice was that if his fever didn't come down, I could consider taking him to an urgent care.  I had to calmly keep repeating to myself - if he hadn't had surgery today, you would not be this worried, just treat him as if he does not have a huge gauze pad and patch over one eye.  When I arrived back in his room to administer Tylenol and change him into Pull-ups for the night, Adam had wet the bed and I had to strip his bed and remake it.  Ryann came in and brought him her pink bear that sings, "Jesus loves me, this I know" and said she wanted Adam to have it so he would know God was watching over him and she didn't care that the bear was pink!  Unfortunately, Tylenol didn't even touch his fever, in fact it went up a little to almost 103 degrees.  I set my alarm for 1:00 a.m. so I could get up and give him some Motrin but Adam arrived at our door at 10:00 p.m. asking if he could get up.  We brought him to bed with us and he radiated heat, kicked off the covers, whacked me in the head with his arm restraints, and kicked me until 1:00 a.m.  I'd gotten up that morning at 3:45 to prepare to leave for his surgery and by that time, I thought I would go mad - I was so exhausted and worried.  Finally, 1:00 a.m. arrived and we gave Adam some Motrin and tucked him in his own bed.  I still couldn't sleep but when I checked his temperature about a half hour later and it had gone down to about 100 degrees, I finally relaxed enough to get a couple hours sleep.  Kids started waking up around 6:00 a.m. and when I dragged myself out of bed, what I initially thought was extreme exhaustion quickly proved to be a terrible virus.  I had a fever, horrible body aches, a cough, and was so weak, I had to sit down to rest every minute or so of walking through the house.  Luckily, Max's fever was gone, Adam's fever was gone, and Ryann didn't have a fever....yet.  Ryann succumbed to whatever this virus is, the next day.

Stu had to take Adam in for his post-op follow up with Dr. B. and I anxiously waited at home, curled up in bed, for word.  Stu called to report that Adam's eye looks absolutely perfect!  Now we're on day two post-op and Adam's doing as well as can be expected with having to take not-very-good-tasting oral steroids and a total of 11 eye drops a day.  Stu's mom is here today, helping me care for the kids, thank the Lord!  So far, so good.!