Eye Exam

In the playroom with Mom.

The plastic was coated with finger prints.

Playing with the gloves with Daddy

"I'm Doctor Reese!"

We went to Le Bonheur in Memphis yesterday. Reese had to have an exam under anesthesia (EUA) for her glaucoma. We got to the hospital at 1 pm, like we were told, for our 4 pm appointment. There was a little boy in front of Reese for surgery who was at 2 pm, and his procedure could take either 10 minutes or 2 hours.

So, we got there. They gave us a gown for Reese and took vitals and gave her an ID bracelet. She did not want to get into the gown. It took us forever to get her into it. She watched TV for a while, and then I took her over to the playroom. We played for a little while, then she played with Mom for a little while, then Dad for a while. Tragically, 4 pm came and went. Reese got out of her gown and into her beloved purple pajammies. She and Dad played with surgical gloves. We found out that Dr. Netland and Dr. Salim were held up at the other hospital, so everything was held up.

At 6 pm, we went to the Bunny Room, which is where you go right before surgery. The Bunny Room has an entry way FULL of toys: My Little Ponies, baby dolls, blankets, cleaning sets, discovery sets, magnadoodles, and a lot more. Reese picked a fuzzy, pink soccer ball blanket. It's fleece soccer balls on one side and blue cotton stones on the other side. She loves that blanket.

Dr. Netland explained to us that they were going in to do an EUA, and possibly a goniotomy (put in a tube and plate to help drain the fluid) depending on how her eye was reacting to the new drops. He really hoped we could put off the goniotomy until she was at least 5. So, they took her back- she was not happy about that- and we went off to wait. Dad and I went and got dinner from the cafeteria. Soon after, Dr. Salim came in to tell us about the procedure. Her eye is doing better, and the surgery can be put off for a while for now. Her pressure in her right eye was 24 (as opposed to roughly 28), and her left eye was 15 (normal). So, the new drops are helping to bring it down. Her optic nerve is involved in her right eye, but it appears normal in her left eye. The doctors put her on another eye drop, Xalatan, I think it was. So she's now on Betoptic, Trusopt, and Xalatan. We go back to see them in 6-8 weeks.

Reese threw a fit coming out of surgery. Kicking, screaming, crying. She didn't really calm down until we got down into the hospital lobby. She was convinced we were not going to go home. This was roughly 8:30 pm, I can't blame her. Because her main demand was "I want to go home RIGHT NOW!", we opted to check out of the hotel and just drive home last night, instead of staying the night in Memphis. We got home about 11:30 pm. She slept basically the whole way home.

This child went 19 hours without real food and 8 without anything to drink, and she did great for the most part. I was really impressed.