Post Surgery Update

Sorry for the late update. It has been a grueling 2 days to say the least. Let's just say that this was WAY more than I thought it was going to be.

All of the pre-op went very smooth. Trista was really pretty calm and the nurses taking care of her were great. They did all the basic pre-op stuff...blood pressure, oxygen sats, weight, height, cardiology updates, etc. After about 2 hours, Trista was ready for her surgery.




We were able to walk her back to the Operating Room. Once there, we were able to meet the Cardiac Anesthesiologist, along with all the nurses that would be in the room with her. Then it was time to put her to sleep. They had me hold her on my lap while they placed a mask over her face. She fought..and fought...and fought. She is no wimp. Finally her arms went limp and I knew she was out. I struggled to stand up and put her on the bed. I found myself shaking. It was all too familiar. Scott and I gave her kisses and walked out of the OR. My heart sank...once again.



No matter what procedure your child is having done, it never seems to get any easier. Yes, I had faith that everything would be fine. Yes, this was way easier than open heart surgery. The fact of the matter was, though, it was all out of my hands...and I really struggled with that.



We sat in the same waiting room as we did last time. The procedure lasted a little over an hour and then they called our name. We met the doctor in a consultation room and he told us that everything went as planned. Her left eye was worse than her right and needed to be lifted more than he originally expected. He was very matter of fact - not telling us what to expect her to look like, just told us to come back and see him on Monday for a post-op appointment.



Whew! I was so relieved that everything went well. We had to wait about 40 more minutes in the waiting room until they called our name to go back to the recovery area to see her. As we walked back I honestly did not expect to see anything too graphic. No one prepared either of us for what we saw.



As we walked up to her room I could see that a nurse was rocking her. I couldn't see her face as it was buried in the nurses shoulder. I could see her arm all wrapped up with the IV, but that was all. I sat down next to the nurse and reached over to Trista's back to rub it. She immediately lifted her head and looked at me. I was devastated with what I saw and broke out into tears. Her eyes were full off "goop" and she was swollen beyond anything I could imagine. Her eyes were black and blue and the stitches seemed to be everywhere. It was so overwhelming.



After pulling myself together, the nurse handed her over to me. I just held her and cried. She looked so miserable and there was nothing I could do to help her. After rocking her for a few minutes, she started to come out of her anesthesia. She was not happy. Flailing her arms, pulling at her IV, trying to rub her eyes. The nurse saw how much she was struggling and gave her some medicine. She calmed down and I rocked her for about an hour before we packed up, completed all the discharge paperwork and headed home.



Once home, Trista perked up and wanted to crawl around and play. The swelling started to go down and she looked a lot better. Grandma Connie brought her a sweet teddy bear with a tutu and Maw-Maw brought her a little red doggy. She played most of the night and went to sleep around 8pm. Much to my surprise she slept all night (with the exeption of the 2 times I snuck up to her crib to put medicine on her eyes).



Today, she was really swollen and her left eye was more bruised. She was in good spirits, though. Playing and laughing. We have to put cream inside of her eye 7 times a day which is not an easy task as I'm sure you all can imagine. Keeping her hands off of her eyes is a major task also!



It's amazing how different she looks. We can finally see her beautiful blue eyes! I cannot wait until all of the swelling goes down and we can really see what she's going to look like. Her eyes are still trying to adjust to everything...you can see them rolling around a lot. She's gone 2 years not fully being able to see so this is quite a change for her! I am going to wait a few more days before I post some pictures. I'd like for some of the swelling to go down first.



Here is a good BEFORE picture that Scott took right before we took her to the OR. It will be interesting to see her AFTER picture :)

Our post-op appointment is on Monday at 1:30pm. Please pray for her continued healing. She is truly the strongest person I've ever known.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!