CT Scan and Eye Surgery

Holland had her eye surgery this morning. Everything went as well as could be expected and she is now home recuperating. In technical terms she had a "bilateral medial rectus recession." This basically means that the eye doctor moved the muscles on the inside of both eyes to straighten them. Hopefully this will prevent her from starting to favor one eye over the other and developing amblyopia, or loss of vision in the other eye. With a little work, it should also help her to start using her eyes better together. Holland was under general anesthesia for the surgery. They gave her gas through a mask to put her to sleep before putting in an IV. I was glad about that because I had spent a lot of time worrying about the IV. Holland loves Dr. Tisch and was all smiles when she carried her back to surgery. She even had some smiles for her after waking up from the anesthesia. All in all it wasn't too bad of an experience. Holly was a little crabby waking up, her eyes are really bloodshot on the insides, and are swollen and really watery. When she gets tired she tries to rub her eyes and I can tell that they are sore. I feel really terrible when she cries because I can't stand the thought of her being in pain. One thing we all know is that Holland is one tough little gal.

After a nice long afternoon nap, Holland woke up in a good mood and was ready to play. She kept staring at Eden and smiling at every move she made. It was so funny watching them because Holland kept wanting whatever toy Eden had. She would drop her toy over the edge of the table and try to grab Eden's toy. Eden has quite a strong will though and can definitely hold her own!

Last week Eden had her first appointments with the cochlear implant team at U of M, and with the surgeon who will perform the surgery. Yesterday she went in for a CT scan of her temporal lobes to check the structure of her inner ear and to rule out any physical abnormalities. She had to be put under sedation for the procedure (just like when she went for the sedated hearing test in April). She was given this nasty tasting medication called chloral hydrate. The nurse told us it would take about 15-30 minutes to work, but after gagging and choking the medication down Eden was snoring in less than 5 minutes! She slept for about four hours straight when we got home. We don't have results back yet, but the surgeon said that based on how Eden looks it would be really rare for there to be any major problems. We have heard some incredible stories about the implant and are really excited about it. At this website, www.laneyjane.com, you can read about a little girl who got the implant around 18 months and is now around 8 years old. They have auditory clips that show how her language has developed over the years and it is really amazing.