The Recovery

Kids are amazing.
Within 24 hours of Ryan's surgery, the kid was grooving to American Idol. Kids are so resilient! He slept through the night following surgery, and woke up pretty angry and upset. He kept holding the eye and telling us that it hurt. After the tylenol kicked in, he wanted to go watch tv so he spent a good hour in front of the tv before he opened either eye. It was probably scary for him. Once open, the eye looked MUCH better than we'd anticipated. It was a bit swollen and red in the outside corner, but we were expecting him to resemble Rocky. He wasn't thrilled, not having eaten for 36 hours, so breakfast was grapes, a pop tart and fruit snacks. Whatever the patient wants, right? We waited a while before putting the first set of drops in and that wasn't very fun. He screamed and cried, so we were traumatized by the thought of doing that 4 times a day for a week. He slept all night the following night, but woke up in a similar manner -- in pain and angry, holding the eye. We repeated the previous days' events and by noon, he was ready to go back to school. He misses his friends and teachers, and they gave him a warm welcome. 48 hours after surgery, he was back at school chasing his friends (and girlfriend) around the playground.

The drops.
Brian always comes up with the ideas. Before his surgery, Ryan was given this sweet little yarn doll that he named "Peanut". Brian told Ryan to put drops in Peanut's eye (with the cap on) and sure enough, that did it. Now, before each eyedrop administration, Ryan puts the drops in Peanut's eyes, then offers himself up for drops. He still squeezes his eyes shut so tightly that it requires holding them open (and being quick!), but we've come a long way since those first ones. Hopefully soon he'll be administering them himself (well, that's a bit ambitious).

The party.
Ryan was back to 100% for his 3rd birthday party. His eye was a tad bit red, 5 days after surgery, but you really have to look closely to notice. He had the best time --even though it poured down rain! The jumpy turned into a slip n' slide which made the kids (not so much the parents) very happy! It was a celebration for us that we survived the first chapter of this and also that we have such an amazing kid! Some photos from the party are below. We all needed some smiles after the last two weeks!

Next Steps.
Ryan goes back for an office visit with Dr. Hubbard on May 27th. We're not sure what he'll be able to see as far as positive results of the first surgery in the office, but I imagine he'll track his recovery and we'll discuss next steps. He's scheduled for round 2 of surgery on June 29th. Now that round 1 is behind us, at least we know what to expect, we hope that round 2 won't be so difficult (assuming we can get him in the hospital doors now that he's on to us!). The search for glasses has started. That's our next hurdle!




Is this a happy face, or what?