Evelyn's Surgery

Today Evelyn had surgery on her eye.  Well, lower eye lid to be exact.  About six months ago I noticed a small bump just below Evelyn's left eye.  It wasn't much at first, you could really only see it if you were looking for it.  After a while we became concerned and took her to the doctor.  He said that it was probably a sty and would be surfacing sometime soon.  A month went by and after putting warm washcloths on it three times a day, it never turned into the sty like we thought it would.  Instead it became larger by the day.  So, back to the doctor we went.  This time he said that it was likely a chalazion and referred us to Boysmith Vision.  

The doctor at the vision center confirmed that it was a chalazion and prescribed us a steriod/antibiotic ointment to apply in the eye twice a day for three weeks, along with the warm compresses three times a day.  The three weeks passed and the bump only got worse!  The doctor told us to stop using the ointment and continue using the compresses.  Another month and a half went by and things only got worse.  

Finally after another appointment (our third), the doctor thought it would be best if it were lanced and drained.  Normally they would do this procedure in the office with a little numbing solution.  However, because of Evelyn's age he said they would put her completely under before doing the procedure.  We weren't crazy about the idea, and decided to give it another month with the warm compresses before resorting to surgery.

Well the month went by, and still things continued to get worse.  At one point Evelyn's eyelid was so swollen that she could hardly see out of her eye and was constantly irritated by it.  That's when we decided to have the doctor lance it.  We had been dealing with it for months and taking care of it just as we were told with no positive progression, it was time to put an end to Evie's uncomfortability!  We made the appointment and were scheduled for the 21st of December.

Today, at 6:30 AM we dropped Beatrix off with my mother for the morning and checked Evie into the hospital to have the procedure.  We were told that once she was all prepped it would only take about 3 minutes for the doctor to lance and drain the cyst.  However, the prepping too MUCH longer than we thought it would!

At first it was a matter of getting Evelyn hooked up to the heart rate monitor, which she did O.K. with.  Next she was given medicine to make her drowsy.  This took about 15 minutes to take full effect.  We knew it was working when she could no longer say her words correctly, it was amusing at first.  While we were waiting for the anesthesiologist, Evelyn got to watch a movie about surgery...three times (she couldn't remember watching it so we kept restarting it).  

The anesthesiologist came, had us sign some paperwork, and left wheeling a crying Evelyn down to the operating room.  Once there they hooked her up to an IV and put her under.

Meanwhile, Matthew and I were waiting in a different room.  We were so surprised with how well she did with all the prep that we didn't take any time to prepare ourselves for the Evelyn they would bring out of the O.R..  We assumed it would just go swimmingly!  How wrong we were....

About 35 minutes after taking Evelyn into the O.R. a nurse hurried down the hall to get me.  All I heard was "We need you Mom," and I was off down the hallway to check on my baby.  Once in the recovery room I saw a little girl who was NOT herself.  I've never heard a person scream the way she was screaming.  A nurse was attempting to hold her in her lap while three other nurses were trying to help hook her back up to the monitors and hold her down at the same time.  They sat me down in the rocker and "handed" (for lack of a better word) Evie off to me.  They kept shouting "Remember, she's not herself!"  Well anyone would know that from a first glance at the panicked girl.  It took me and three other nurses to just hold her hands away from her face.  She kept trying to peel the eye patch off.  Once she saw there was an IV in her arm she freaked (as if she wasn't already)!  She alternated trying to rip the IV out of her arm with attempting to rip the eye patch off.  After about twenty-five minutes of this, just when I thought I could hold her no longer, she began to calm down.  Another five minutes later and she was quietly sobbing while we were being wheeled back to the prep room where Matt was waiting.

From then on, things went fairly smoothly!  What an emotional wreck she was!  And Matt never heard her screaming from down the hall.  I wish I could get soundproofing like that in my house sometimes!   Evelyn got her Jell-o she was promised by the nurses and after another thirty minutes we were being discharged.

Later this afternoon, you would never know she had surgery and went through so much panic earlier this morning.  She was the happy smiling Evelyn again!  As a special treat Matt and I decided that she could open one of her Christmas presents early, and apparently there could be no greater reward to her!  

As for the sore on her eyelid, it looks a little bit better as of this evening, but the doctor said it probably wouldn't go completely away for a few weeks.  We cannot wait until she's comfortable again!

Evie, before the surgery, with her special bear from the nurses.