Today we are spending the day at St. Louis Children’s Hospital on the 6th Floor, which is the Same Day Surgery Floor.
Hayden is having eye surgery for a condition known as Strabismus.
With Strabismus, his eyes are misaligned. One eye can be going one way and the other eye is going another way. This has only been happening for a little over a month and I’m grateful that everything is happening so fast and they are taking care of it.
With the surgery they will put Hayden under general anesthesia and several eye muscles will be repositioned on both eyes using microsurgery. Dr. Leuder, who is performing the surgery has been wonderful is answering all our questions. He also does 10 of these surgeries a week so I feel really confident with him.
There are some small risks with the surgery of course, with the big one being they could over correct or under correct the eye muscles, resulting in a second surgery! I’m hoping that won’t be the case! Temporary double vision is also common after surgery while the brain gets used to the new position of the eye. This usually will go away after several weeks. I’m hoping it goes away sooner and Hayden will be able to tell us what is going on.
Also, I didn’t update it here on the blog but last Wednesday Hayden had his MRI to make sure the brain was clear and nothing else was causing the Strabismus. After a slightly stressful and long day at the hospital we heard from a nurse around 6pm who told us that everything was clear! There was nothing pressing up against the optic nerve.
We were told that the doctor was “slightly bemused” and asked if Hayden has had any problems with his tonsils. I told her he hadn’t any problems and she said that his tonsils and andenoids are so large they were showing up on the Brain MRI, which it normally doesn’t. The nurse said after all this is done we will need to be referred to an ENT.
Sigh, let’s save that for another month, shall we?
We are not getting to the hospital until 11:45am so I have to find lots of ways to keep Hayden distracted this morning so he doesn’t want to eat or drink. Which is tough because breakfast is definitely this kid’s biggest meal of the day!
I will be sure to update how everything goes after the surgery. It is expected to be anywhere from 20-90 minutes long. We will be in a recovery room for a couple hours after that so I’m armed with lots of DVDs. Hayden will have to take it easy for a couple days after (Yeah, can someone tell me how to do that with a toddler? Seriously, I’d appreciate it!) and the one thing I’m trying to prepare myself for is bloody tears. The doctor warned us that he will have bloody tears for a couple of days after while everything is getting flushed out.
I want to thank everyone who has been so supportive of our family, through comments on the blog, tweets and emails. You have no idea how much it means to me.
<3
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Thinking of y’all today and sending hugs!
Thank you SO much Shannon! <3
Thinking of all of you! Can’t wait to hear that all went well 🙂
Thanks so much Tara! 😉
Thinking of you guys today.
Thank you April!
Good luck! Thankfully we are at a time when they can fix these problems fairly routinely. You will come through this and be an even stronger mom!
Thank you so much for the awesome words Joanne!
Good luck! I’m sure everything will be just fine!!
Thanks Gina!
Great Hospital all will be fine 🙂
Thanks Angie! They are so awesome there!
Wow, surgery day is here already? Time flies!
I’ll be sending good thoughts your way today Mama, I have no doubt that the surgery will be over and done before you know it and that Hayden will come through with flying colors. Hang in there!
Time really did fly, I feel like we just found out! Thanks so much Xenia! <3
Sending best wishes and good thoughts to you and your family for a speedy, stress-free recovery!
Thank you Gina!!
Melissa does Hayden have Cerebral Palsy ? Because my youngest son had Strabismus as well and had to have surgery to correct also. Tyler has Cerebral Palsy , A.D.H.D.and a mild form of Autism he’s 19 now .
I will be thinking of you and praying it all goes well.
I have a daughter with a cleft palate, which will need to repaired several months from now. Surgery with such a small child is terrifying, but this made me feel less alone.
Good luck having him “take it easy”. They’ve told me my daughter will have to be in arm restraints for a week, which breaks my heart. You can’t reason with children this small and that makes it harder. I’m trying to remember that the whole episode will be a minor blip on the big picture of my daughter’s life. Hope the same goes for you and the surgery is successful!
My daughter had that but we never had the surgery. She’s 20 now and wears contacts and as long as she has her glasses or contacts on, her eyes are straight. I often wonder if we should just have had the surgery. Well, i hope all goes well. Good luck.
Praying for Y’all and wishing you the best outcome for the surgery.
I hope every it all goes smoothly. I will be praying.
Praying for you and Hayden today! I had Strabismus as a child, too, and had the same surgery Hayden is having today. No further issues (with that eye), thankfully. I pray that Hayden has a similarly successful story!
(((HUGS)))
I hope everything goes well today! I’ll be thinking about you guys!
Sending thoughts and prayers your way!
Your Social Fabric family has you and your family in our prayers. Please let us know how everything goes.
Courtney Velasquez- Community Director of Social Fabric
My prayers are with you and your family today!
I came by to let you know that I nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award.
-Jordan
been praying this past week for you guys. hugs
Thinking about you!! How did everything go today? We’ve been through this same exact surgery twice now and I’m hoping there will be no more of them. We have a follow up appointment on Monday and I’m nervous, anxious, scared and hopeful to find out what they say.
Keep us posted on how the surgery went. The bloody tears freaked me out the first time. Everyone told me about them and prepared me for it, but none of that mattered when I saw them.
You can read some of our Strabismus posts here: https://www.typicalsuburbanfamily.com/category/strabismus/
I know I’m really late, but I’m thinking about you and your little guy!
sending (( hugs )) your way…hope today was a good day for you and your precious family 🙂
Ive had you guys in my thoughts and prayers all day!!!
Stay strong Mama! Today will be tough, and don’t expect tomorrow to be a whole lot better. You’re probably on auto pilot right now, but try to get some rest too. It’s a whole lot easier to be patient with the baby when you’re rested. You’re in our thoughts. Give Hayden a big ol’ hug from all of your bloggie friends 🙂
Please let me know how this goes for you! My 3 year old is scheduled for this same surgey on April 16th and I’m scared to death!