Strabismus Surgery

 After 9 months of patching, we had Strabismus Surgery to correct the alignment of our 2.5 year-old daughter's eyes.  Now that she has had the surgery, she won't have to wear her patch and likely will not need glasses.

The muscles in both eyes needed to be loosened to correct a horizontal misalignment.  Her right eye needed an additional procedure to correct a vertical misalignment.

The surgery required her to be put under general anesthesia, so she was not able to eat or drink after midnight the night before the procedure.  The busy hospital environment distracted her from the fact that she missed breakfast though, so she was in a great mood while waiting for the surgery. 

Before putting her under general anesthesia, the nurses gave her a light sedative, Versed.  Versed a Cherry flavored oral sedative that made her relaxed, a little loopy, and induced forgetfulness.  By the time the nurse carried her back to the OR, she didn't seem to have a care in the world and didn't seem concerned at all about leaving without her mom and dad. 

The entire procedure took just over an hour.  Waking up from anesthesia was pretty rough.  She screamed for a solid ten minutes, pulled at her IV, and asked for me (even though I was laying in the bed with her).  Thankfully, after ten minutes of screaming, she fell into a deep sleep.  We were even able to change her out of her hospital gown, into her clothes, and carry her to the car without waking her.  Needless to say, we did not get our "David Goes To The Dentist" moment.

The rest of the day was also rough.  It was: cry, sleep, eat, play, repeat.  Luckily, the anesthesia didn't make her sick at all and she had no trouble eating.  We gave her Children's Tylenol and used her eye drops for the pain.  We have to do eye drops 4x per day for 7 days.

 Day 1 After Surgery.

She woke up the next morning in NO PAIN!
She was back to her old self and did not even need Tylenol.

 Day 3 After Surgery


She still has those vampire eyes!
We should have planned ahead and scheduled her surgery for the day before Halloween.

Her eyes have not been wandering like they had been, but occasionally seem to show a little misalignment.  The doctor said it may take a little while before her eyes are perfectly straight.

Day 7 After Surgery

Her eyes are still noticeably red, but much of the redness has dissipated and her eyes are looking much better.

She seems to be getting used to her new vision and has been running into things a little more than usual (notice the owie under her left eye).

Day 7 - Different View

 Day 10 - She started complaining about her eye hurting.  She was developing a small cyst in her left eye and a huge stye was forming on her left eyelid.   We got new antibiotic drops for her eye (4x per day for another 7 days) and ointment for the stye (applied at bedtime).  I am not sure if the stye is related to the surgery or just a coincidence.

Three Weeks After Surgery - All of the redness is gone!  The cyst looks better and the stye is shrinking down.

***

Second Surgery

After the first surgery, her alignment was much better, but before her 6 week follow up appointment, I noticed that her left eye was drifting up slightly.  The doctor confirmed that her left eye now had a vertical misalignment.  He said that it is very rare for children to need a second surgery, but occasionally that is the case.  We were part of the lucky few who get to go in for surgery round two!

Seven months after the first surgery she went under the knife again.  The process was the same and went very smoothly.

Waking up from the anesthesia was MUCH better this time around!  I am not sure if it was better because she was older so she was less confused or if the nursing staff just waited longer before they let us see her.  Either way, I was a happier mama.

 Day 1:  Approximately 20 minutes after Strabismus surgery to fix a Vertical Misalignment.

Pupil dilated, bubbly redness.

Day 2: Lots of redness but not so bubbly.
Woke up without any pain and acted totally normal all day :).

Day 3: Looks about the same.
Bruising under eye starting to show up.
Old lady at Papa Murphy's gives me an accusing glare...
















Daily dose of gross!  Check out the redness hidden under her eyelid!

 Day 5: The swelling in her eyelids is going down showing more of the redness on the top part of her eye.












 Day 11:  Seeing a little less red

Day 14: Redness starting to dissipate and almost take on a purplish look.

 Day 21:  Three weeks after surgery and there is still some redness.  It is not nearly as noticeable anymore.

Day 28: Four weeks after surgery and the redness is almost gone.  It is taking longer for the redness to go away this time around than it did with her first surgery, but nobody seems to notice her red eye anymore.