Post op Days 2 & 3

Ethan has done great the last 2 days.  Yesterday he only asked for Tylenol and an ice bag for his eyes once.  Today, I've asked him a couple of times if he wants any, and he has always said "No, I'm good!"  He is doing great at remembering not to touch his eyes.  Occasionally, he'll reach up to touch his eyes and then remember and say "I'm sorry, I almost touched them.".  Yesterday he helped me clean the basement, watched a lot of movies, and we ran a couple of errands around town.  He really was getting quite bored with just me, so we had Lily over to play this morning.  They had so much fun together.  He is taking a power nap right now, logging in 3 hours and 15 minutes so far....hmmm, wonder how long I should let him sleep??

Ethan asked Lily to play tag and she said "No".  This is what he did....

So, of course, Lily went and told him she changed her mind and she would play tag.

This is their "boat"

Sailing the seas of their imagination!

The only thing Ethan is struggling with is the drops and ointment we have to do.  We do the drops 2 times during the day and the ointment at night before bed.  He HATES them!!  I asked him if they hurt and he said "No, they are just scary!"  Poor little buddy.  This morning, after we did the drops and he was crying he yelled at me "When I get big, I'm going to put drops in your eyes!!!"  That about made me cry.  I do have some eye drops that I use occasionally, I just might have to let him put them in my eyes tonight.

Aidan and Daddy will arrive home in a couple of hours.  Hopefully, they can remember to not play rough....wish us luck with that!

From the Colorado Aunties with love!

Post Op: Great News!

Ethan has done great post operatively! Yesterday it took him until about 5pm to get brave enough to open his eyes.  Once he did, he found out that it was ok, and decided to start playing with Aidan.  They played together outside for about an hour and then Ethan hit his wall and was tired.  We did a quick supper, bath, and then off to bed.  I was a little worried about how he would react when I put the arm restraints on because he hated them so much in recovery room.  But, he didn't fuss at all!  He woke up once at 3am wanting more Tylenol and a new ice bag on his eyes.  This morning when we woke up, his eyes were stuck shut and we had to get them open.  He still wasn't so sure about opening them, and preferred to wear sunglasses and feel around like a blind person. :)

Off to IA City Ethan, Grammy and I went for a post op visit.  Nana, Aidan and Adam went to Chicago for Connor's birthday.  Dr. Drack is very, very happy with how Ethan is doing.  She was very impressed that he felt well enough last night to play, that he had such a good night overnight, and said that already this morning, his alignment measurements were better that preop and he was using his eyes together.  We are just suppose to encourage Ethan to use his bifocal more now that surgery is over.  She thought things looked so good, that we don't have to go back until Oct. 7!  Since Ethan felt so well, Grammy and I decided to make a short stop at the outlet mall in Williamsburg on the way home.  Ethan was a very good shopper!!  His reward for having such a good postop visit was to get to ride 3 rides at the mall and actually have Mommy put money into them so they really moved!!! :) 
Thanks to everyone for all of the prayers, well wishes, and thoughts over the last few days.  Things still hurt some and he still is on Tylenol and ice bags, but otherwise doing very, very well. 

Resting at Aunt Barb's

We made it back to Aunt Barb's. While Ethan was in recovery, he was very agitated.  The recovery nurse asked if I would come back and try and help to settle him.  She said typically they don't ask parents to come back, but with my surgical nursing background, they felt it was appropriate.  Ethan was pissed off that he had elbow restraints on and an IV in his hand!  The more he threw a fit, the more croupy he sounded.  After multiple attempts as taking the restraints off, having to put them back on, trying to keep him from pulling his IV, giving him Morphine to settle him (didn't work), and giving him some humidified O2, the recovery nurse finally decided to call and see if we could just take the IV out.  Anesthesia said yes!  Boy, he was much happier without all the wires.  They placed an ice bag over his eyes and said most kids don't tolerate it or leave it alone.  He has wanted the ice on his eyes, which will just help make things better faster.

After he settled down, we finally got to meet back up with Daddy and Grammy.  Ethan let us spoon feed him 2 popsicles and declared that he was ready to go back to Aunt Barb's.  He has been resting comfortably ever since we got back.  Aidan was down for nap already by the time we got back, so he has not got to see Ethan yet.  None of us have really got to have a good look at his eyes open, because he's only barely opened them about 5 times so far.  Dr. Drack said that he may not want to open his eyes at all today, and that was ok.  We do have some eye drops we need to try and get in him 2 times today.....wish me luck with that!

He sorta looks like a wounded Civil War soldier with the ice wrap around his head, but if the ice is on his eyes, he can't rub them.  I'm afraid tonight may be a LOOOOONNNNGGGGG night! :)

Out of Surgery

Ethan is out of surgery.  We haven't actually seen him yet.  Dr. Drack came and spoke with us.  She said that the inner rectus muscles which cause the crossing were attached very close to the colored part of him eye.  The oblique muscles which caused his "trick" were very large.  She was very positive that we will see a very good result from the surgery.  She said the blood vessels oozed more than normal during surgery, so she had them draw a CBC on him and we will get those results tomorrow when we have our post op visit.  Because of the extra oozing, his eyes will be more impressivly red and for a longer period of time.  But, she said it will not affect the success rate of the surgery.  He will most likely will not want to open his eyes for the rest of the day and may have some bloody drainage from his eyes and nose.  She gave us some ointment and drops that we need to try and get into his eyes that will help with infection risk as well as pain control.  Otherwise, Tylenol should do the trick.  Hopefully we'll get to see him in about 30 minutes or so and can give another update then.

Off to the OR

It's about 8:00 am Thursday morning.  Ethan is back in surgery right now.  The morning has gone really well.  We took off from Cedar Rapids about 5:30 this morning. 

Everyone here is super nice and made us feel really comfortable.  Ethan's ambulatory surgery nurse, Julie got him checked in for surgery.  Turns out Adam went to Iowa State with her and they hung out together some in their college days.  Nice to see a "familiar" face.  While they were taking Ethan's vitals and such, he kept hiding under his blanket hoping everyone would go away.  

Checking out the fish



Aidan gave Ethan this picture to take along to surgery, since Aidan couldn't go with him.

After that, Ethan got to go off to the play area.  He was having so much fun.  The nurse anesthetist meet us there.  Turns out, she was born and raised in Ames.  Her parents and brother still live in Ames.  We had a lovely conversation about how she used to work at Hickory Park and how wonderful Great Plains Pizza is!  YUM!  I told her how I am a surgical nurse in Ames and she immediately knew one of our anesthesiologists too.  She suggested we give Ethan some Versed.  It is a medication that made him feel groggy and has amnesia effects.

Just when he was starting to act "goofy" they came to take him away.  He went right off with them, no tears shed at all.  It's so nice that he didn't even realize that he was really taken away from us or scared because of the drugs.  Surgery will take about 2 hours and 45 minutes.  They also said that they keep their kiddos in recovery for quite a while and let them wake up slowly on their own.  Dr. Drack will come and talk to us after the surgery is over to let us know how everything went.  We'll update more later today after surgery is over.  

The Big Day

Thursday is surgery day for Ethan.  I can't believe it's almost here.  Doctors have been mentioning surgery to us since Ethan was 6 months old.  Every doctor's appointment we would always wonder "Is this when they are going to say he needs surgery?"  It's hard to believe that day is finally arrived.

We are leaving tomorrow night and heading to Cedar Rapids to stay with Adam's aunt and uncle, Barb and Al.  Our Grammy and Nana are coming along as support crew for us as well.  Ethan has to be checked in at Iowa City at 6:15 am and surgery will start about 7:15.  I believe they had previously told us it would take about 1 hour per eye.  We will go back to Cedar Rapids after we are discharged on Thursday and then have a post op appointment on Friday morning.

On Sunday night when we were putting the boys to bed, I told them they had 3 school days and then it was Ethan's surgery day.  Ethan gave a very excited "Woo Hoo!!"  I'm so glad he'd not scared...yet.  He's always been such a brave little boy at all of his appointments and so willing to cooperate with any testing they've wanted to do.  I hope he proves to be the same on Thursday.  He can recite all of his "rules" for after surgery (no rubbing his eyes, no water in his eyes, no dirt in his eyes, but he must get drops and cream in his eyes).  He also keeps telling everyone at school that his eyes are "sick" so he needs surgery and they will miss him while he is gone.  The teachers are a little nervous about what things will be like that first week back, but they do such a great job at ACPC that I know there will be no problems.

I'm so used to looking at Ethan with his crossed little eyes.  It really is a part of who he is.  I'm a little sad to be straightening them out, but know that it really is the very best thing for him. 

Here's some "before" pics for you.  We'll be sure to put some updates on here over the weekend along with some "after" pics. 

1 year

18 month

2 yr-first day with glasses

3 year

Little brother cheering him on!

The Fairs

What a busy weekend we had!  Auntie B and Auntie Mimi flew in from Denver on Thursday evening.  The boys had a picnic with them and Grammy at Riemen Gardens in Ames on Friday.  The night, we took off for Marcus to attend the 75th Marcus Fair.  There are several things I love about that little fair.  The admission is FREE....you can't say that about much anymore.  Basically, the only thing you pay for is your food and ride tickets.  All the entertainment, from the tractor pull to the hypnotist to the horse show to the parade is FREE!  It was also wonderful to know that I could give my kids (and myself) a little roaming room.  Seriously, everyone knows everyone.  If someone tried to steal my kid, someone else would say "Hey, that kid doesn't belong to you."  The boys were so excited that they could actually run ahead of me without me yelling for them to hold my hand or stay close.  We took in some animals and of course, Grammy sprung for lots of ride tickets.  Great Auntie Mary let the boys have their first "camping" experience by letting us sleep in her camper in her backyard.  They loved it!

They would always give a "thumbs up" to the operator when they were ready to go.

 

On Sunday we went out to Uncle Cody and Aunt Jen's house on the farm.  We had a birthday party for the 4 kiddos.  Emma and Jonathan's birthdays are in August and the boys' are in October.  Unfortunately, no one is going to be able to make it to the other ones birthday parties and the aunts weren't sure if they could come back again this year.  So, we had a celebration.  There was grilling, presents, cake, and cousins playing.  Uncle Cody topped it off by taking the boys out in the tractor to rake hay. 

After 3 fun filled days, the Marcus Fair came to an end for another year.  The boys were so tired, they could hardly put one foot in front of the other, but they would never admit their exhaustion.  They slept for 13 hours straight!!  Monday morning, we popped up bright and early and all headed out to the Iowa State Fair.  The boys received strict instruction that they would need to ride in strollers because this was a GIANT fair.  I think they may still have been a little exhausted from the weekend and liked being pushed because there wasn't much fuss about stroller riding :)  They each lined an arm with tattoos from the Varied Industries Building, ate lots of good food, did Little Hands on the Farm, saw animals, rode the sky glide, sat on tractors, and ate some more (gotta have the warm chocolate chip cookies!). 

 

After all of that, we took the aunties to the airport and said our goodbyes.  You would think we would be "faired" out after all of the that, but when we put them to bed, they asked if we could go to the fair again tomorrow.  They were pretty disappointed when I told them it was a school day and we would have to wait a whole year before it was fair time again.  We have had such a fun summer and can hardly believe it's coming to an end.  We are hoping for a few more pool days in the next couple of weeks.  It's starting to get dark earlier at night and the evenings are beginning to feel cool.  Sure signs that fall is on its way.  In 2 short weeks, we'll be in IA City for the much anticipated surgery and then we'll know for sure, that summer is over.