Alyssa's Surgery

Alyssa had eye surgery today. (the picture above is Alyssa pre-surgery enjoying some of her new dress up clothes from Christmas - tiarras, head hands, earings, rings, princess dresses, etc). The doctor went in to move the top muscle in her eye. Alyssa has been squinting quite a bit in her left eye and the doctor thinks its because her eye is drifting up and creating double vision. By closing that eye, Alyssa is fixing the problem. Of course, closing the eye doesn't let the eye develop either, so we needed to do something about the drifting. They altered the location of the muscle -- moving it further back on the eye -- to weaken it and make it so it doesn't pull the eye up.

We went into the hospital at 6:00am and were out by around 11:00am. I was nervous but she did great! She was a trooper and several people commented on how good natured she is - the doctor, a few nurses, a nice elderly gentlemen who escorted his wife back to the pre-op area at the same time we were heading in. Of course, they weren't around our house at 3:30 this morning when she woke up and wanted water and we couldn't give it to her -- she wasn't so good natured then, but I completely understand that.

While the doctor had her under, she did an exam, checked her prescription, and checked the eye for future implanting of an interocular lens. The doctor found that Alyssa's eye can take a standard lens at this point (we wouldn't have to special order it) and I guess that is good news. So she can have another surgery whenever we want to do that, but its best to wait as long as possible. So, hopefully we will get her to about school age before we need to worry about another surgery to implant a lens in her eye. It will just depend on how long Alyssa cooperates with the whole contact lens thing.

She was groggy most of today and a little on the cranky side. She wanted what she wanted and she wanted it when she wanted it - period! She is also a picky little eater and drinker and wouldn't touch the tylenol with codeine that the doctor prescribed (and that I waited at the pharmacy to pick up for approximately 40 mintues). At least she likes motrin, so hopefully that will help with any pain she is having.

Anyway, I can't tell you yet whether the surgery was successful or not. We have a post-op appointment in two days and hopefully I'll know more then. It was scary to see blood coming out of her eye, but I guess that is normal for the next few days. They said Alyssa will have blood stained tears for a few days. She also looks like she got sucker punched in the eye, but the swelling is normal as well.

Well I expect a nocturnal visit or two tonight, so I'm going to go to bed. I just wanted to give you all a quick update to let you know Alyssa made it through the surgery and is doing fine so far.