Gatlin Goes Under the Knife.

Gatlin had surgery on his eyes this past Thursday.  He has Strabismus.  It is a disorder in which the two eyes do not line up in the same direction and therefore do not look at the same object at the same time.  Gatlin hasn't been seeing about 2/3 of things.  If we didn't correct this then he would have eventually lost vision in his right eye.  He has enough challenges in his life that we decided the surgery would be best for him.  It was a minor surgery but still very scary for us.  Matt was able to take the day off to be with us.  We were able to leave the other two kiddos with some friends.  We made the long one hour drive to the surgical center where I kept trying to talk Matt into scrubbing in to watch/help with the surgery.  He politely told me that he didn't want to make Dr. Moody feel uncomfortable and that he would do a good job.  I guess he was right.  Anyway, we checked in and waited for about 40 minutes.  Oh, to have one child again! Gatlin was awesome.  He just cuddled with Blanket and watch the fish swim in this huge aquarium.  (All of these pics were taken with my phone which explains the poor quality.)

 They called us back and we stayed with him until it was his turn for surgery.  The surgical center was so nice.  It was a pediatric center so they were very patient and accommodating to all the little ones there.  About 10 minutes before they took him back, the nurse gave him some Valium to completely relax him to make it an easy transition for putting him under.  It was so funny.  (I probably should say that but it was!)  He was so mad because they had to give it to him through his nose.  Then, he started giggling and before long he was almost asleep.  I haven't seen him lay that still since he was a newborn.

(after the Valium kicked in)

 Then, they took him back.  I was proud of myself.  I didn't cry. I only shed just a few tears.  The surgery took about 45 minutes.  We went back to see him in recovery and he was sleeping very peacefully.

The nurse walked us through the post-op care for him and then he woke up.  He was upset and crying but Matt and I were able to calm him down in just a few minutes. Whew! This was the part that scared us the most.  We were both so nervous that him coming out of anesthesia and having blurry vision on top of that would be very scary and traumatic.  He did so good.  On the way home he vomited a little, but after that he was fine. 

(Dr. Moody gave him some pretty cool glasses to wear after the surgery)

He slept in our room that night.  We had to watch him close and make sure that he didn't rub his eyes.  Again, he did really well and only tried to rub them a few times.  I would just hold his arms and tell him not too.  He is such a good kid. He seems to see a lot better than before.  Two days after his surgery he kept running up to us and would just stare at our faces and smile.  I am sure if he could he would say, "I can see!"  He had his post-op appointment this past Wednesday and everything looks great.  He will not need glasses right now.  The doctor wants to see if his own reflexes will correct the little bit of turning that his eyes still does. He will have to visit the doctor again in 3 months. This is all good news and we are so grateful to have this problem taken care of and behind us.