Strabismus Surgery, Success

After a long awaited surgery fraught with stress and anxiety, the actual event was as unremarkable and “routine” as the doctor had promised. The most important thing is that the results are successful and my daughter no longer has crossed eyes.

The nurse took her from us at 7:40am and the next hour was excruciatingly long, thankfully I was well prepared with a Star Magazine and was pleasantly distracted by the story of Tom Cruise’s “offspring gift” of $5M to Katie Holmes for having a second child. My husband and I discussed the absurdity yet awesomeness of getting paid by your spouse to have children.

Our doctor came out at 8:42am and before she said anything I can see on her face that everything went well. I was still only comforted with partial relief as I have yet to see my baby. A few minutes later, the nurse came out to bring us to the recovery area where she laid, still passed out from anesthesia. Still, I was not fully relieved because we were still waiting for her to wake up. I needed her in my arms. About 10 minutes go by of me touching her arm, brushing hair from her face, making sure the IV wasn’t kinked, pulling the blanket over her, etc. until she finally stirred. She immediately began rubbing her eyes as I’m sure they were in pain, itchy, dry and different. I tried pulling her arms away but she was persistent. The doctor assured me it was fine but I could not imagine this was good for newly sewn together eyes.

We stayed at the hospital for 2 more hours until the head nurse cleared her for discharge, making sure her vital signs were strong enough. In most cases, eye surgery causes nausea and vomiting so they were also monitoring that. She finally got to drink something, Gatorade, apparently water exacerbates nausea. Thankfully, there was no vomiting and all vitals were strong.

When we got home, she took a 4 hour nap in my arms, I wanted to keep an eye on her in case she did vomit in her sleep. I took a much needed nap myself since I did not sleep the night before and all the tension finally got to me. When she woke from her nap, other than red eyes from the surgery, she was laughing, playing with her big sister and ate a big dinner. It was only then that I breathed and said to my husband, “We made it”. And this was the most common and routine of surgeries. I cannot imagine anything more extraordinary. My heart goes out to parents who have to deal with more.