Linnea's Post Op

Let me introduce the Eye-Patch Pirates (left to right) - Elise, Pama (Mike's mom), Linnea, Caleb.

We spent the night at Papa & Pama's house Sunday night so we could more easily get Linnea to her 6:30 a.m. surgery. We were a little late because the surgery center staff had called to tell us the cornea transplant wasn't in yet and we needed to wait a couple of hours. What cornea transplant?! Turns out they had confused us with another case. Linnea was getting a trabeculotomy but with a method that does not leave a bleb (eye blister).

After all the pre-op paperwork and patient prep she was taken away by nurse Vicki at about 8:10 a.m. Nurse Maria came out early on to tell us the eye drops we've been using were working and that her left eye pressure was now in the normal range. Her right eye pressure was down but still way above normal so the surgery would proceed. Some pacing in the waiting room and at 9:20 a.m. we were brought to Linnea as she was awakening.

We had been warned that she would probably be upset as she came out of the effects of the anesthesia - a little bit of an understatement. It took both Kirsten and I with a nurse to keep a hold of her. She was screaming like we've never heard before while wriggling and wrangling around. The iv tube became entangled around her and she pulled off her eye bandage twice. She kept saying she didn't want to be busy, which we interpreted as dizzy. Finally she began to calm down and began to repeatly say, "I want to go home." The doctor came by and said the surgery went very well, anatomically speaking. The next phase is waiting to see how effective the surgery is in reducing her right eye pressure. We brought her back to Papa & Pama's house and she slept into the afternoon. Between 4 and 5 p.m. she began to perk up and take some food and drink - an ice cream cone with sprinkles being the clear highlight. She didn't try to take off the eye patch at all and, in fact, enjoyed being a pirate with the rest of us faux patch pirates.

We took her in for a follow up appointment today and she bravely let me take off her eye bandage. She wasn't about to let the Dr. look into her eye but he saw enough to assure him things looked good. We now have the daunting task of putting antibiotic eye drops into her eye 4X/day and steroid ointment 2X/day. Please pray for that and also that her right eye pressure will drop to and stay in the normal range. Thank you so much for your prayers and phone calls!