2021 has been a wild ride for our family, and it’s not quite over yet. We still have to get through our daughter becoming a teenager, football season, Nutcracker auditions, soccer tournaments, dance competitions, holidays, work...I’m already exhausted!
However, our 15 year old has had many first in his life during 2021. In February, he broke his first bone, his finger...in FIVE places. In June, he made his first trip to the emergency room for an infection on his face. In July, he had his blood drawn for the first time, and then today he had his first surgery.
We have known since January that he was going to need surgery on his eye, but it’s not a critical, emergency surgery, and we were then dealing with Greg’s Leukemia diagnosis and uncertainty with healthy insurance, so we decided to push it back. But, we knew once we had everything figured out that this needed to be the year to do the surgery. We had already met all our deductibles between Greg and the broken finger, making this the year to do everything!
Why did he need surgery? He has a condition called Strabismus. I have it as well and went through this exact same surgery twice in my life, once as a freshman in high school and again about 5 or 6 years ago. Sadly, it is known to be genetic. Sorry buddy, that’s my fault! Anyway, it is a condition where a muscle of the eye, either the inside or outside one is too tight and pulls the eye off to a side creating what might look like a crossed eye.
For our son, it never bothered him. He never saw double vision, had headaches, or was put off by it. However, it is obviously better if the eyes are working together at all times to prevent any issues from developing in the future. It is less work on the brain when it doesn’t have to try to align two different views.
So, today was the day of his surgery. This was all done at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and they have been great the entire time. And his Ophthalmologist has been absolutely wonderful throughout the appointments and then today for the surgery.
Leading up to today, he had been pretty nonchalant about everything. He always flies through life taking things in stride. Even today, having to get up earlier than he does for school and sitting in the waiting room he was like “whatever.” It wasn’t until we got back into the pre-op room that he began to show some anxiety. And, it all started with the IV.
He had no issues with the blood pressure and pulse, but once the older gentlemen nurse went to put the IV into his hand he got a little concerned. First, I don’t think he expected it to go into his hand. This was the point when asked how he was doing, he pretty much didn’t respond. Then, as proof to his growing anxiety, he said that he wished he was at school!
So Nurse guy started trying to put the IV in his hand while the anesthesiologist talked our kid through what the process was going to be. She was going to tell him 3 jokes once they got in the OR and then he wouldn’t even remember them. She ended up having to stop trying to distract our little G-Man because Nurse Guy couldn’t get the IV in. Three poke attempts later, with the anesthesiologist taking over, and a teary eyed kid, the IV was successfully in place. This experience basically ruined his calm the rest of his time in the pre-op room.
I appreciated that the doctor came into the pre-op area and talked to us just to remind him what they were going to do. She joked a little with him, even though he wasn’t having any of it. But, again, I really, really like his doctor! She told me that once the surgery was finished that she’d come to the waiting room to talk to me.
When he was finally prepped, I was sent back to the waiting room to wait. He gave me a big, tight, long hug before I walked away. That, my friends, was tough. I know he’s 15 and not 5, but he is still my baby boy, and I knew he was scared and I had to leave him and trust these strangers to not let anything bad happen.
He’s lucky number 631115….
So, I found a little corner of the waiting room. There were very few people there. Granted the numbers were lower because only one parent was allowed in the waiting room, so some parents were waiting in the hallway or just outside because they had little babies having surgeries and both parents came. I felt bad for the little girl who looked about 5 or 6 and was crying and scared in the pre-op room. The one thing about going to a children’s hospital, is that these people are GREAT with kids!
I settled in, knowing that he wasn’t yet in the OR, and the surgery was expected to be about 45 minutes. I watched the digital board on the wall that allowed me to know where he was and what was going on. Once I saw it switch to “Procedure in Progress,” it became a little more difficult to focus on the book I was reading on my Kindle. However, it was only 25 minutes before the doctor came out and told me that it was all done, everything went great, and that he was a funny, awesome kid. I was able to breathe again. She told me that once it was in recovery and starting to stir, they would come get me. She also told me that teenage boys take the longest to wake up! No surprise there!
She explained that the inside muscle was really tight. Tighter than she expected, but that the adjustment and movement of the muscle was going to adjust the eye so it didn’t have to work so hard.
Finally, just before 10, they called me back. When I got back, he looked like he was still asleep, but was definitely beginning to move around. He asked me prior to all this to make sure I got a video of him waking up. He has seen all those videos of people waking up after getting their wisdom teeth out. However, it was really hard to take a video when he kept reaching out to me and feeling my face.
As he was beginning to open his eyes, he couldn’t focus, so he kept reaching his arms out. When the recovery nurse would talk to him, he would say “who’s talking.” Here are some of the fun conversations:
Nurse: How are you feeling
Kid: I’m so tired
Nurse: How is your stomach?
Kid: I’m so tired. Can I go to sleep?
Kid: Who is talking?
Me: I am and the nurse.
Kid: You’re here?
Me: Yep, (rubbing his head)
Kid: Are you touching my hair?
Kid: (to nurse): Who are you?
Nurse: I’m just housekeeping
Kid: Like a janitor? I don’t know you.
Nurse: No. I’m your nurse. I've been taking care of you.
Kid: Where’s Jeff? Wait, where am I? How did I get here?
Throughout all these little conversations, he kept reaching out like he was walking in a dark room and didn’t want to run into anything. He would pick up his hand that had the IV in it and shake it like he was trying to get a fly off. Much to his disappointment it didn’t shake the IV out. I did get a video of him talking about the jokes that he was told right before going under. Apparently, he thought they were horrible.
He gave me full permission to post this video!
We finally got him home and settled. I ran back out to get him his promised Jamba Juice. We tried really hard to convince him to lay in his bed and sleep, but he refused because he doesn’t like naps. Eventually, it all caught up with him, and we were able to get him to bed and he took a great long nap. It was nice that Greg was working from home today so he was able to step away for a few minutes to help get him upstairs as he was still a little groggy and discombobulated.
Tonight, he is more aware and the grogginess has worn off, he ate some pasta without issues and he is resting. Unfortunately, his eye hurts and has a gritty, uncomfortable feeling. Thankfully, having the surgery before, I know exactly what that feels like so I can sorta help him through it. The best is that he doesn’t remember much of anything.
Now, we can look towards our little, soon to be teenager getting her wisdom teeth out. We have four more months, so get everything done! There is always something!
Lessons Learned:
It doesn’t matter how old your kids are. Moments like these are stressful and hard. I learned that my kid is hilarious whether he is drug-induced or just normally. I always thought our daughter was the more dramatic one, but I think that this boy can hold his own in the drama category.
A lot has evolved over the years with this surgery. I remember when I had it in high school, my doctor had to convince the insurance company that it was necessary. Now, there are no issues with validating the need for it. The surgery itself is quick and simple with modern technology. I will say that when I told him that the grittiness he felt in his eyes was from the stitches, he freaked out. I guess I should have prefaced it with the fact that they were dissolving stitches.
Kids are tough, resilient and see life in a totally different way than jaded adults!
I’m just glad that this one is done!