Ander's Eye Surgery

Part of why Nathan and I were so worried about missing our connection on our way home this summer was because we didn't want to miss Ander's appointment with the eye specialist the next day, a Thursday. We were so grateful to make the appointment, even though we were all jet lagged. 

The Dr. was amazing (or maybe my acceptable standards have just really been lowered in Asia!) his staff was competent and they knew what they were talking about. Due to the nature of the recovery and how long they want to watch it, when it was decided that surgery was what needed to happen, it needed to happen right away to have time to keep tabs on him during the healing. I was so thankful that Nathan was there for it! The next morning, Friday, Ander had surgery for his non-accomodative Estropia, Strabismus, and Ambliopia.

 The hospital staff was wonderful. It was such a treat to understand every word that was said!
We did hit a small speed bump, however, when we were brought back to see Ander in recovery and he had had to be sedated again. The head nurse was not happy that they had had to do that. She said for reasons we don't know the anesthesiologist sedated Ander but chose not to give him a pain reducer which they typically do. So when he woke up instead of it being a slow realization that his eyes hurt, it was sudden, crazy, bad pain. He had pink tears streaking his cheeks as he laid there in the hospital bed. Mama did not like.
They monitored his heart rate very closely and when he started to wake up again he was still hurting pretty good. The light was pretty unbearable, initially.

 He wasn't supposed to rub his eyes but the stitches that were in them really bugged him. He was such a good boy and had more self control than I would have had. We found that having him hold his blankie over his eyes helped soothe and calm him and keep out the light.

 At home Nathan came up with this clever idea. Ander didn't open his eyes enough for us to see anything until 8 hours or so after the surgery. We kept it dark and offered him ice cream to try and get him to eat.

 At 10pm he finally opened his eyes and had some ice cream. The inside corners of both eyes were quite red and tender, it was described to us as a bruise, and it's normal and to be expected. He really bounced back after the first 24 hours though. So strange to see his eyes more symmetrical, it almost didn't look like him!

The first post-op Dr.'s visit was positive. Everything is healing fine. These surgeries often need another surgery or possibly a third to do some tweaking on the muscles of the eye to get them centered, symmetrical and working together. His left eye is still pulling in some but it is much improved so far. We are still waiting for it to finish healing and for the muscles to settle into how they will work and function.
It was unexpected timing for the surgery and it consumed our first week or so in the states, but we are so grateful we were able to meet with great Dr.'s who have the expertise to help him. A major step in the right direction!