06/14/12
So today is the big day. The day that makes Mommy want to throw up, and grab Grace and run away, far far away from there. But we couldn't. We all had to be strong, and supportive of Grace.
The night went, and the morning came. There's little miss Grace in her homemade pajamas. those are special pajamas worn for special occasions.
Look at Miss Sweet Grace!! Isn't she the most cutest little one in the world? See her eye turning in. That will definitely be changed in just a few hours!
Our Ronald McDonald Bedroom! Isn't very big, but it's just big enough for us to fit comfortably.
The other side of the room.
And the bathroom on the left with the exit door on the right.
Look at miss silly Grace! I just love it when she makes silly faces at me.
At the Primary Childrens, we had to visit the cute little metal bugs that they had in the plants.
And of COURSE we had to visit the colorful horse! I don't think, actually I'm pretty positive that we weren't supposed to be visiting the horse this way, but Brad says that sometimes you just have to do the fun stuff, even if it's wrong! I guess, in this occasion, that's right.
Look at this darling bug!!
BEEP BEEP! This is the first time she's ever ridden in this car ever in her life, and she loved it!!
Vroom Vroom!! I thought she looked so cute in this fire engine.
There was a pretty big play are for the kids to play while we were waiting for her to go back to pre-op.
I absolutely love the mural. There are even hidden little animals that are all throughout the mural, so even Brad and I had fun looking for all the different animals.
Here's the right side of the mural. See the cat fish? Next to Brad's knee.
Here is our beeper that we had to hold until it was our turn.
So excited!
Hurray!
This face makes you think that she knows what's going to happen. She's got her Mr. Monkey with her to keep her company.
So, we were supposed to go in at 9:45 to sign in, and not have the surgery until 11:15 am, but we were blessed to have gone in at 9:45 am and they took us right back. After all the blood pressure testing, heart rate, blah blah blah, we met with the opthamologist and discussed what would be happening. They would open up her eyes, make slits on the muscles of each eye, and either tighten or loosen. Then close her up! I had to sadly give her away to the anesthesiologist, and held it together until I turned away from him, and then I couldn't even talk. We went to the same day operating waiting room, where we walked up to the receptionist and I couldn't talk. She about started balling..."oh boy...oh gosh..." is what she said as she rapidly blinked the tears away." I took a deep breath, and as the tears are pouring down, I let her know that it's just a simple surgery, but that "its just so darn hard...gosh...I didn't even cry for her spine surgery...sorry...it's just hard...to see her go." Blah, even now I'm getting choked up. We waited for about 40 minutes, and then Dr. Hoffman came in and said those words that made me get all choked up again..."Everything went perfectly." And he went on to say the second best thing..."we did less than we had to." Everything else was pretty much a blur, but when he said we had to wait again I was kinda ticked! About 25 minutes later I went back to see her, barely holding it together when I saw her like below.
After surgery...she had fussed a tad, so they gave her two doses of some sort of medication, and so she was out for an hour. They started to get worried, as did we, and Brad had to roughly rub her feet so that she would wake up.
Daddy is sitting by waiting for his Princess to awaken from her deep sleep.
Finally awake, and not a happy camper. She had to drink the full cup, and wake up enough. We had to stay for about another hour because we wanted her to drink, wanted her to wake up enough, and just the preparations of getting her ready to go. We had gotten her eye drops and I tried to make an appointment with the doctor to come back for a checkup, but after getting lost in the huge hospital for about 10 minutes, I found that the office was closed!
Oh, definitely not happy. She has to wear arm braces so that she wouldn't rub her eyes. She hated these things so much.
Oh my poor sad girly. Not long after this picture she was able to get to sleep, so she wasn't so fussy anymore. She pretty much slept the whole way home, and when she did wake up, she was pretty whiny. We stopped off at Subway, and of course people were staring SO MUCH while we were there. I know they are just curious, and it didn't bother me as much as me wanting to let them know what's going on with her. I think that people should ask, and feel ok asking, rather than staring and wondering. I would be happy with people asking, because then it's not as awkward as staring.
Look at those sad eyes. Darnit. But do you see how much straighter the eyes are :) We just HAD to get some fresh air, which is why we went outside. I was told that the sun would be bad for her eyes, but I wasn't going to keep her stuck in the house, so we just stayed away from the sunshine.
This was the first thing Brad did when we got home. He just loves his garden, and was so happy to get there and relax by watering his garden.
Trying to be happy despite being in pain and having scratchy eyes. The stitches in the eyes feels like she's got a bunch of sand in her eyes.
Oh darnit. Not happy. This went on throughout most of the day/night.
Our tags for Grace. The red was for the house, and the pink was to let the doctors know we belonged to Grace.
And when all else fails, Sesame Street!!
My poor little girl has been through so much, and she's such a trooper.
See how sore her eyes look? I can't wait for her to be fully healed, ready to go swimming, bathing, and playing with friends.
You are so strong sweety. I love you.
Amanda
