April 11

ROP surgery went well. Nurse Kelly was with Elsie the whole time, and said that she did great. It is comforting to me to have caretakers who know my baby well, and can be there with her when I cannot. We love our primary nurses! Anyway, surgery went fine. Basically, Elsie's eyelids were propped open (don't worry, she was sedated with general anesthesia, so she didn't feel a thing), her pupils were dilated, and the doctor took his magic laser gun and zapped all of her rogue blood vessels so that they don't detach her retina and cause her to be blind. The risks of the surgery are very minimal; one being that it might cause her to be nearsighted, but like I've said before, the poor kid doesn't stand a chance of NOT being nearsighted due to her genetics, so no big deal there. The other risk is that there is a very small chance of the laser not get all of the bad blood vessels this time, and if so, they would have to go back in a few weeks and do it again. Again, no big deal, please Mr. Eye Doctor, work your magic laser again and do what is necessary to prevent my baby from going blind. Thank you.

After surgery

They performed her surgery at her bedside, but first moved her to Room 2, which is more private and less crowded. She will probably be in Room 2 for a few days, since she has an IV and is recovering from surgery. They intubated her since she was under general anesthesia, and wanted to make sure that she kept breathing during the sedation. We were assured, however, that as soon as she came out of her anesthesia that they would pull out the tube and put her back on the nasal cannula. Her poor little eyelids are a little swollen, and they are taped shut until tomorrow morning, so that her eyes can recover. The eye doctor will continue to monitor her eyes weekly, to make sure that her eyes heal and to make sure that they didn't miss any problem areas. 

Needless to say, the swallow study and learning to feed by mouth have probably been pushed to the back burner for a little while until she recovers. One small step back in her overall progress, but a necessary step back so that in the future, she can leap ahead and see the beauty that is all around her.

It kinda looks like her left arm is bandaged up in a pink cast. It's not. That's a blanket rolled up next to her :)

Sleeping Beauty