Kaleiah's eye surgery on 10/27

Kaleiah was diagnosed with Strabismus at 18, almost 19 months old but we noticed it just as she turned 16 months old.


Strabismus is a disorder in which the eyes do not line up in the same direction when focusing. The condition is more commonly known as "crossed eyes."
Alternative Names
Crossed eyes; Esotropia; Exotropia; Squint; Walleye
Causes
Strabismus is caused by a lack of coordination between the eyes. As a result, the eyes look in different directions and do not focus at the same time on a single point.
In most cases of strabismus in children, the cause is unknown. In more than half of these cases, the problem is present at or shortly after birth (congenital strabismus).
In children, when the two eyes fail to focus on the same image, the brain may learn to ignore the input from one eye. If this is allowed to continue, the eye that the brain ignores will never see well. This loss of vision is called amblyopia, and it is frequently associated with strabismus.


She has been patching the good eye and wearing glasses for 6 months. We met with her opthimologist about every 1-2 months and the last time was last month when he said we would need to schedule surgery to correct it. We were nervous but knew she needed it in order to keep her weak eye from loosing vision.

Yesterday was the big day and let me tell you I was a wreck. It was going to be so hard for me to know she would be put under anesthesia and be cut open. All we could do was pray and trust our God! He has worked miracles in our lives before and I knew His hand would be over Kaleiah with this also. He loves her just as much as I do!
So we woke up at 4:15 in order to get to Beverly Hills by 6:00am. My parents came over and waited for Kaden to wake up and took care of him until we got home.
Poor baby woke up when I put her in her car seat and never fell back asleep, but she was great. We got to the surgical center and filled out some paper work, a nurse came out and explained what would happen next. When they called her name, we headed back to triage where we in a large room w/ a lot of others, only separated by by thing curtains. I am not a fan of hospitals (I wonder why) so it kind of creeped me out. But we both had to be brave for her and not let her see anything but happiness and smiles. She was doing just fine, wanting to climb on the bed and playing with the pillow. Then cam her first round of medicine to help her relax and go under. The nurse suggested that we do it instead of her bc Kaleiah might be more accepting of it that way. It was a liquid mix of Tylenol and versed (Valium). And it was supposedly cherry flavored. At first she didn't think it was too bad and let us give her a good bit but then I think she realized something fishy was going on. So we basically had to force the rest down her which she spat out about half of. But ten min later she was relaxed and getting a little loopy. At which point I started crying. It was just hard for me to know her state was being altered. I ha to pull it together before I completely lost it, which I had been fighting doing for days. Finally the anesthesiologist who we had heard so much about, came in. He was incredibly nice and just is demeanor made us feel comfortable.Dr Wright will only work with Dr Jumper, he specializes in pediatric anesthesiology. Dr. Wright will even cancel all his surgeries if Dr. Jumper is unable to make it. That's how much he trusts him. This information brought so much peace of mind bc actually, my biggest worry was with her going under. He explained what would happen next and what exactly he would be doing. He explained that next we would be going into the operating room where he would give her an oxygen mask with numerous gasses in it which would put her to sleep before he inserted her IV. He explained that there are a few stages one goes through when being put under and stage 2 is excitement meaning she may get bright eyed and look around or try to get the mask off of her face etc and said do not be alarmed if she does. We signed some more paper work and then carried her back to the OR. She was definitely getting more sleepy and out of it.
He sat down, I set her in his lap and as he held her and rocked her he put the mask up to her face. He asked her if she knew the itsy bisy spider and started singing that with her. That was the song that we had just sang with her while we were waiting in the triage room. I knew that was a little nudge from God saying see, it's going to be ok :) He held her and layed his head on hers, singing with her as if he loved her and was her family. It was really, really amazing to see how awesome he was with her and how much he must love kids in general. And his job for that matter. She would smile and chime in every now and then as he sang it, all the while falling more and more asleep. Dr. Wright and the nurses were just standing there waiting, it was sort of intimidating to be in an OR surrounded by nurses and Dr.'s but at the same time it was amazing to see the care she was in. She did go through stage 2 and tried to move the mask once or twice but that was it. In probably 2-3 minutes she was totally out and they layed her little body onto the little operating bed. Then it was time for us to leave. I immediately went into the rest room and cried hysterically for 10 minutes. Not only had it been building up but the whole situation brought back so many emotions from te NICU. The fear, the worry, but the gratefulness that she was in such great hands. But having to leave her was heartbreaking. I just wanted everything to be ok and we fully trusted God that it would be. After I was done crying my eyes out and we were waiting for the 40-45 minutes of the surgery, I must have read over 50 messages of people that were praying.

Something I learned long ago is when times get tough you learn who your true friends are. There are those you know you can count on through anything, big or small. People that will pray for and love you no matter what. Not friends that hold grudges yet claim to be men or women of God. The friends that will ask how they can specifically be praying as you go through whatever it is that your going through. Then after the dust has settled you can actually know who was there for you and who wasn't. Not even reaching one kind word saying, glad everything is ok, or I'll pray for you. I am honestly glad to know who our true friends are!! We had so many church family, friends and of course family praying with and for Kaleiah and us. Without that support and encouragement I don't know how we would have held up so well. Some of the verses that I held onto was
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future
And of course my favorite one and the main one that got me through the whole hospitalization/NICU season:
Joshua 1:9 (New International Version)
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

I thought the time of waiting to see our baby girl would take forever. But I passed the time reading all of the prayers and encouraging comments people were sending. And before I knew it, they called us to head back to the recovery room!!! I literally jumped out of my chair. We were lead back to a little room where I sat in a rocking chair, a sweet nurse explained what she would be/look like when she came in and what we would expect for he next 30 min or so. Dr. Jumper brought her in and layed her in my arms. My heart was bursting with gratefulness bc it was then that I truly knew she was OK, and we made it! God is so good!!! I held my precious, sleeping daughter and just starred at her. Again I was reeling with emotions from the NICU. I remember the first time I held her and they placed her in my arms at 9 days old.
I had been telling her for days before this that God would be with her, knowing she had no idea what I was talking about. But He was and He will always be! I was so thankful that it was all over. Randy and I were so relieved. She still had a part of the intubator in and an oxygen mask. She was so peaceful and I was just amazed at all this little girl has been through in her 2 short years. But I will always praise God bc I know just how bad it could actually be. I know some people go through way harder stuff. But it's never easy to see your baby in pain or to have anything wrong. The nurse explained what the after care would be, what to expect in the next few days. Then Dr. Wright came in and the first thing he said was that the surgery just went "text book" and it went as good as it possibly could have. Pretty much the best thing to hear! He explained to us just how he did it and I have so much respect for him. It is not easy what he does!! But he has been doing this for 25 years, averaging 300 surgeries for this per year. You do the math. He is also One of America's Leading Experts on:
Lazy Eye (Strabismus)
Lazy Eye (Amblyopia)
Castle Connolly America's Top Doctors, 2009
So basically what he did was, a speculum held her eyes open and then he wet through the bottom of her eyes, clipped the muscles, straightened the eye, reattached the muscles to the lining of the wall which he said is thinner than tissue paper, and cut off the excess muscle. So there are no scars at all and you honestly would never know she just had surgery expect for the blood covering the inside corners of the white in her eyes. Basically they are bruised but they just look bloody. But her eyes look absolutely amazing, I was blown away to see the difference just 5 hours after surgery. Blown away I tell you. And they will just keep getting better as they heal.
Rewind to recovery. After Dr. Wright was done talking with us, he shook our hands and I'll never forget he said, "Thank you for trusting me." It was a blessing that we were able to go with the same Dr. she has been seeing all along and that he is one of the best in this field. He is not in our network so we almost had to start looking for a different doctor but God provided a way and were able to keep our daughter in the best care! Then the nurse explained that in a few minutes she would give one more dose of meds through her IV and that she would need to breath room air for 15 minutes and then we could go. Kaleiah started to move around and cry and accidentally ripped the IV right out of her hand. Blood flew but the bad part was, now the nurse couldn't administer the last dose of pain meds :( Poor baby girl . She calmed down and the nurse said it had 15 min and we could go. I carried my little baby girl all the way to the car and then when I put her in her car seat, it all went down hill. She FREAKED OUT. It was all to be expected but it was till very, very hard to watch her in such pain and confusion and so uncomfortable. SO unhappy. She cried and screamed like I've never heard and there was NOTHING that would make her stop or feel better. I know what it feels like coming off of anesthesia and it sucks. I felt for her. I just wanted to take it all away. But she finally calmed down when we got on the freeway and that was a relief. The nurse explained that her eyes would feel like there is sand in them. So that along wit the soreness along with coming off of anesthesia, along with being up at 4:30 on 6 hours of sleep, along with no food or drink in over 12 hours...she would have to be miserable.
But you know what? She was pleasantly surprisingly a doll considering everything. She woke up right before we got home, smiled a groggy, sweet, little smile and said yes when I offered her a drink. I took her inside while Randy went to get food (FINALLY) and she seemed normal! She asked what the kitty was doing and even laughed. Then all of a sudden, she slid off the couch and layed on the floor and started crying and was super irritable. I knew she was still coming off anthesia. I rocked her and she fell asleep for about an hour.
Randy brought food home and went to pick up Kaden who had been with Grandma and Grandpa al morning. By the time they got back, she was up again and in a much better mood! She ate a good lunch and had lots to drink which I was happy about.
Then I decided if she felt up for it, she needed a bath. She had medicine all over and smelled like a hospital, yuck. She said she wanted to so we did and I was just beside myself that here she is, playing in the bath tub, doing remarkable and just had surgery hours prior. Amazing. But this little angel had a really rough start in life so she knows a thing ot 2 about hangin in there. Man, I love her.
After baths, Daddy put Kaden down for a nap and took one as well (again waking up at 4:15am is not fun). So Kaleiah and I got dressed and I gave her a surprise I had gotten her the day before. Just a little something to make her happy bc she had been through a lot. It was her first pony and she loves it. She named it Sparkles. We lounged on the couch with Sparkles and watched Snow White and about 5 minutes later I could tell she was sleepy. I asked her if she was and she said yes. So once again I rocked her, not passing up any opportunity to comfort and hold my little treasure. A little bit after she was down, Randy came out and then I went and took a nap as well. A much needed one at that. Not only was I physically tired, but emotionally as well.
After I woke up, I came out to find my two peanuts playing like normal. What a beautiful sight :) Again, we were just in awe that she was up and around and playing, not even 12 hours after having a surgery! Randy took Kaden to the store while I made some dinner for Kaleiah and then a little while later she went to bed. I expected a really rough night, seems pain and being uncomfortable is alwys worse at night. But she slept all the way til 5:30 when she woke up crying. Daddy got up with her and let me sleep, something he often does and I love him to pieces for.
Today was just wonderful. She was literally 100% back o her little, happy go lucky self!! I tell you, besides the bloody eyes you would never know what tis girl just went through. I am such a baby, I would have been in bed for days after such an ordeal. But she loves life and hates to miss out! I planned on keeping her at home for 3-4 days to rest and recoup but when it was obvious ow well she was feeling I knew it would be more than fine if I took her on a walk for soms fresh air and sunshine. And its just the greates thing that by going on a 7 min walk we can go to Grandma's :) They played as usual and Kaleiah even helped cousin Crystal carve a pumpkin.
God is love. He is faithful to our prayers and I am constantly humbled by his love for us. We are so thankful for everyone who prayed for our baby!


On our way to get the surgery

right before her medicine

In recovery

Driving home

Her surprise :)

Just 11 hours post surgery! Looking amazing.

ONE day post surgery. Recovering well :)