Surgery- Success!

Yesterday Lulu had her lens implant placed successfully in her weak/left eye. She also had her iris stretched to improve her pupil size. The surgery went great. Everything was smooth and she was such a patient person. When Lulu sweetly rested her head back for her 6th pre-surgical eye drop, the nurse said, "Your parents clearly love you a lot, and I know I just met you but I think I love you too..." because of how well Lulu was participating in the whole experience.

We played round after round of Uno before surgery and Lulu spent some time with the iPad playing pre-school games. She only felt hungry about 15 minutes before surgery so she didn't suffer too much over the food restrictions. After surgery, she was totally comfy sleeping on Mom and resting and snacking on Dad. We also had a special surprise visit with dear friend Steven Han MD. This surgery was longer than the last but not as painful afterward so going without morphine so that she wouldn't be crashed out for 4 hours afterward was a huge improvement over last time.

We left the hospital with 3 prescriptions and a very large pink postsurgical cotton and metal eye bandage with patch. On the way home, Lulu was so ready to get back to life that she wanted noodles right away. We tried to pick up take-out Thai but she insisted on going in and eating at the restaurant just to get food into her faster.

Nana and Bapa and the boys greeted Lulu with a congrats present and we played board games until an early bedtime. Thanks to everyone who took care of the boys!

This morning we had the post-op visit with Dr. Epley and he took off the bandage and pronounced her eye healthy and the lens intact and in the right place. We learned about the work we will be doing to prevent infection and the rapid scarring that children can form. She will take oral steroids every morning for a week plus we have to give two different eyedrops four times a day. Basically it is three meds for a week and one for a month. Then we start all over with the other eye. We are definitely going to have to make ourselves a chart to keep track over each day. Lulu also has to wear the metal patch taped over her eye at night for a week along with no roughhousing, no swimming, no rubbing or scratching, and good hand hygiene.

We can tell that she is seeing differently now but in what ways and how things will change, we will see over time. For now, we can tell that she is not used to using that eye much as it became weak due to the combined lack of a lens and the fact that it was the more tightly turned inward of the two over her lifetime. However, she is already asking about things that she couldn't see previously like a painting on her wall. She is expressing lots of love. I think she knows very clearly how much we love her and how proud of her we are as she goes through all this. It's a lot and she bears it with dignity and joy.

Thanks to everyone for their assistance, prayers, and well wishes. This next two months is all about these lens implants for us in addition to some pretty special holidays.

I will try to post photos tomorrow.

Love to all, Karin

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