22 Family-Favorite Slow Cooker Dinners
4 days ago
Monday, June 13, 2011
Addendum
To go along with my previous post, here is a video showing the result of medicine given to James right before surgery. Enjoy :)
Curse that cataract!
About six months ago, our pediatrician noticed an asymmetry in James's eye reflexes and referred us to an ophthalmologist, Dr. Abrams. Due to insurance reasons, we had to wait until about a month ago to see this doctor. After dilating his eyes, right away Dr. Abrams noticed something amiss with James's right eye and scheduled an exam under anesthesia the following week to get an accurate diagnosis. James absolutely HATES this doctor and screams every time he sees him! He would NOT hold still that entire exam.
We arrived at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center at 6:30 am a few days later. We were the first surgery on the schedule, yet right before showtime, the nurses realized they never dilated his eyes. The dilation drops take about 45 mins to work, so we were pushed back, and back...and back. 3 hours later, he was in surgery. Needless to say, it was absolutely exhausting trying to keep James entertained while not destroying all of the equipment in the room. The good thing, however, was that the nurses felt bad and gave us three free movie passes. :)
Dr. Abrams returned and diagnosed James as needing cataract surgery in his right eye, a patch on his left eye to retrain the right, and glasses. He then referred us to Dr. Dries up in the SLC Primary Children's Hospital to do the surgery.
After an appointment with Dr. Dries, a pediatric ophthalmologist, we decided to book the cataract surgery for the following Friday. We were hoping to book it for after our Disneyland trip, but that would have been too late. We need his right eye to start relearning how to see correctly right away. On a side note, getting cataracts as a child is pretty rare. It's only about 6 out of 10,000!
Needless to say, I was a bundle of nerves all week leading up to the surgery. Friday morning came, and our family made the drive up to the PCH. We got there at 9:00, our surgery was scheduled for 10:30, but was pushed back an hour. He was changed into his hospital gown, and we waited in the toy room for our turn. I felt bad because by this point, James hadn't eaten anything since 7:30 the night before! About 30 minutes before the surgery, they dilated his eyes and gave him a medicine to get him sleepy so the separation would be less severe (for us both). James was SO upset getting the medicine, and he still cried when the nurses took him away to the operating room. I just about died walking away because I could hear James screaming in the other room before he got the anesthesia. Chris and I went to the cafeteria to eat during the surgery. I had butterflies the entire time! An hour and a half later, Dr. Dries came out with good news! The cataract was out and a new lens was in place. Because his eye hasn't finished growing, they had to predict what his eyesight will settle on. He will have to wear glasses to compensate for the difference. On Thursday, we visit with Dr. Dries again to determine if he's healed enough to wear a patch on his good eye to retrain his bad eye, and he will be fitted for glasses.
After surgery, I got to be with James in recovery while he came out of anesthesia. It was so heartbreaking being there with him screaming in confusion, and he kept trying to pull his patch off. Arm restraints (which we got to take home!) were the magic answer. We stayed at PCH for a couple more hours to monitor him, then we drove home. Over the next few days, we had a follow-up visit (all is good!), and have been giving him drops in his eyes every few hours. He has his patch off and on during the day, and wears his arm restraints pretty much all day and night to keep him from rubbing. It has been extremely emotionally and physically exhausting trying to keep him safe and happy. I am so paranoid! It has been such a blessing that he still sleeps okay! He still sleeps with his eye shield on, which he hates. I am not sure how long we'll have to keep this up, I'm thinking until his stitches dissolve in about 2-4 weeks. Unfortunately, he will have to have another surgery in 3-6 months to remove more tissue behind the implant. Right now it is anchoring the lens in place until scar tissue forms to keep the lens in position. After that surgery, he might have to have other surgeries to remove excessive scar tissue.
Even though it has been extremely difficult, there have been so many blessings. We are so grateful that our insurance covers just about everything, and we have LOVED Dr. Dries and PCH. We are very glad Dr. Abrams referred us to him. Doing cataract surgery in infants is very different than surgery in adults because their tissue is still so soft. It is a delicate process and we literally had the best surgeon in the state. We have heard horror stories of other doctors, not specializing in pediatrics, making mistakes. Our post-op care was wonderful, and we are blessed to not have had any problems since surgery.
Here's to hoping everything keeps going well! We are heading off to Disneyland in a week, and hope there are no problems! :) We can't wait for our vacation!
We arrived at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center at 6:30 am a few days later. We were the first surgery on the schedule, yet right before showtime, the nurses realized they never dilated his eyes. The dilation drops take about 45 mins to work, so we were pushed back, and back...and back. 3 hours later, he was in surgery. Needless to say, it was absolutely exhausting trying to keep James entertained while not destroying all of the equipment in the room. The good thing, however, was that the nurses felt bad and gave us three free movie passes. :)
Dr. Abrams returned and diagnosed James as needing cataract surgery in his right eye, a patch on his left eye to retrain the right, and glasses. He then referred us to Dr. Dries up in the SLC Primary Children's Hospital to do the surgery.
After an appointment with Dr. Dries, a pediatric ophthalmologist, we decided to book the cataract surgery for the following Friday. We were hoping to book it for after our Disneyland trip, but that would have been too late. We need his right eye to start relearning how to see correctly right away. On a side note, getting cataracts as a child is pretty rare. It's only about 6 out of 10,000!
Needless to say, I was a bundle of nerves all week leading up to the surgery. Friday morning came, and our family made the drive up to the PCH. We got there at 9:00, our surgery was scheduled for 10:30, but was pushed back an hour. He was changed into his hospital gown, and we waited in the toy room for our turn. I felt bad because by this point, James hadn't eaten anything since 7:30 the night before! About 30 minutes before the surgery, they dilated his eyes and gave him a medicine to get him sleepy so the separation would be less severe (for us both). James was SO upset getting the medicine, and he still cried when the nurses took him away to the operating room. I just about died walking away because I could hear James screaming in the other room before he got the anesthesia. Chris and I went to the cafeteria to eat during the surgery. I had butterflies the entire time! An hour and a half later, Dr. Dries came out with good news! The cataract was out and a new lens was in place. Because his eye hasn't finished growing, they had to predict what his eyesight will settle on. He will have to wear glasses to compensate for the difference. On Thursday, we visit with Dr. Dries again to determine if he's healed enough to wear a patch on his good eye to retrain his bad eye, and he will be fitted for glasses.
After surgery, I got to be with James in recovery while he came out of anesthesia. It was so heartbreaking being there with him screaming in confusion, and he kept trying to pull his patch off. Arm restraints (which we got to take home!) were the magic answer. We stayed at PCH for a couple more hours to monitor him, then we drove home. Over the next few days, we had a follow-up visit (all is good!), and have been giving him drops in his eyes every few hours. He has his patch off and on during the day, and wears his arm restraints pretty much all day and night to keep him from rubbing. It has been extremely emotionally and physically exhausting trying to keep him safe and happy. I am so paranoid! It has been such a blessing that he still sleeps okay! He still sleeps with his eye shield on, which he hates. I am not sure how long we'll have to keep this up, I'm thinking until his stitches dissolve in about 2-4 weeks. Unfortunately, he will have to have another surgery in 3-6 months to remove more tissue behind the implant. Right now it is anchoring the lens in place until scar tissue forms to keep the lens in position. After that surgery, he might have to have other surgeries to remove excessive scar tissue.
Even though it has been extremely difficult, there have been so many blessings. We are so grateful that our insurance covers just about everything, and we have LOVED Dr. Dries and PCH. We are very glad Dr. Abrams referred us to him. Doing cataract surgery in infants is very different than surgery in adults because their tissue is still so soft. It is a delicate process and we literally had the best surgeon in the state. We have heard horror stories of other doctors, not specializing in pediatrics, making mistakes. Our post-op care was wonderful, and we are blessed to not have had any problems since surgery.
Here's to hoping everything keeps going well! We are heading off to Disneyland in a week, and hope there are no problems! :) We can't wait for our vacation!
Friday, June 10, 2011
The Spitzers!
We were SO thrilled to have Chris's older sister and her family come and visit for a few days. We hadn't seen Kirsten, Mike, and McKinley in over a year! James took an instant liking to Mike, and was obsessed with his hat.
James and McKinley were like 2 peas in a pod, and loved being with each other. James kept trying to sit on her lap, and she didn't mind one bit!
One of the nights they were here, Danny and Elaina joined us all for a game of Disney Scene-it!
We loved spending time with the Spitzers, and wished they could have stayed longer! They didn't even mind our terrible weather. Coming from Texas, they were grateful for some stormy weather! After they left, we finally got some good weather, so James and I went out to enjoy the sunshine for a while!
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