Something Off The Wall

Friday, August 5

This morning we headed out early with CD to travel down to Primary Children's Medical Center where she was going to have eye muscle surgery.  The technical term for what was done - bilateral medial rectus recession.

on our way

Last December we had discovered that CD was getting a lazy eye.  When we took her to the eye doctor about it, he told us what she really had was called esotropia and that only surgery would fix it in her case.  What that means is that her eye did not sit straight, it was slightly turned in. This was causing double vision and in response her brain started to "turn off" the bad eye which is why it looked like a lazy eye.  So we started patching CD's "good" eye to help strengthen her "bad" eye.  Until the bad eye (her left one) was strong enough, there was no point in doing surgery.

Patching worked miracles on strengthening CD's left eye and it was determined she was ready for surgery.  We were going to a doctor here in Logan and he referred us down to PCMC to a doctor who does these surgeries all the time - Dr. Dries.

We told CD that she was going to an eye doctor to get her eyes fixed.  She isn't a fan of doctors and didn't even like having her physical exam.  She refused to put on her ID bracelet - on her wrist or ankle - so they taped it to her back.  CD did however LOVE playing toys while we waited.  Of course that was her favorite part.  She found a little microwave she especially liked.  She was given some medicine to help her relax to help with the separation too.  So she had to sit on my lap and couldn't wander for a bit.  The microwave helped with that a lot.  Then the time came for her to go back to surgery.  I carried her to the "double doors" where they then took her away.  She was upset, but not too bad thanks to a spinning toy with lights they showed her.

Then the waiting game began for Jon and I.  We got lunch, ate lunch, and waited and waited.  We actually only had to wait an hour, which wasn't too bad.  Dr. Dries came and told us that surgery went well and he was happy with the results.  We then had to wait for them to tell us that one of us could go see CD.  Of course I was the one who went.

When I got to the room to see CD, it wasn't a pretty situation.  She was waking up from her anesthesia and really struggling.  As the nurse described it, she was "thrashing around".  It turns out they called me down as soon as possible because CD was thrashing around, trying to pull the IV out of her foot, and trying to get out of bed.  So they brought me a rocking chair to sit in and I did my best to hold her and keep her from tearing out the IV.  She kept saying she wanted to go play with the toys.  If she wasn't fixated on the IV, she was fixated on getting out of there to play toys.  The pain medicine she was getting was pretty strong and helped to make her sleepy.  But she was fighting sleep so much.  Finally I got her to sleep a tiny bit and I convinced the nurse to take the IV out since she had had a couple of sips of chocolate milk.  While taking out the IV CD woke up and the fight started again.  But since the IV was out they decided to send us to the next waiting room that had a TV.  Jon could then join us at that point too.  Once in that new room I finally got her to sleep again and she had a good 15-20 minute nap on my lap.

When she woke up again, she was a different girl - although she was still very tired.  CD was no longer thrashing around and she woke up and noticed that "Princess and the Frog" was playing on the TV.  So she sat on my lap, drank ALL of her chocolate milk, and watched the movie.  At that point the nurses said we could leave.  So we got our discharge papers and instructions, and Jon headed downstairs to get her prescriptions filled.  After getting all of our things together, CD got to ride in a wagon out to the car.  She also was given sunglasses to wear to help protect her eyes from the bright sun.

still not feeling great, but on her way home

While on our drive home CD slept a little bit and ate almost a whole little box of Gold Fish crackers.  When we did get home, she finished her crackers, drank her chocolate milk, and fell asleep pretty quickly on the couch.  It had been a long, difficult day after all.

so tired

Surprisingly CD actually was interested in eating dinner, so I made her some macaroni and cheese.  She almost fell asleep at the table, but she refused to get down until her dinner was gone.  Shortly afterward she went to bed and slept wonderfully.  The next day, CD was a new girl and you never would have known she had surgery the day before!  She talked non-stop, played all day, and even ran around the house.  She was her normal, happy, crazy self - and it was good to see!

There is no patching or bandaging required for her.  She just has to have eye drops in both eyes 4 times a day for 2 weeks - something she doesn't really enjoy.  She will have a followup in a month on September 6, and then we'll see what happens from there.  But so far, so good.  ;0)  She is an amazingly tough and strong little girl!

August 1-3 (no pictures because I didn't take any, my bad)

We joined my family (ALL of my family) for a camping trip at Lava Hot Springs from August 1-3.  It was like a little family reunion that was a ton of fun!  There was Grandma & Grandpa Allen, Uncle Justin & cousin Morgan, and Uncle Clint & Aunt Hilary.  And of course the 5 of us.  We camped in our "palace" tent, Clint & Hilary also slept in a tent, and Grandma & Grandpa had their trailer there.  And boy were we super glad we had a trailer...

Monday night everyone arrived around dinner time.  After a late dinner we started cleaning up.  When we were about done cleaning it started sprinkling a bit so we hurried and put everything inside the trailer and closed the windows of the tents.  Then the wind started to pick up.  So we rushed to get things safe from being blown away while the men (Justin wasn't there that night) ran to the tents to get them staked down better.  That's when the down pour started.  To say it was storming is a understatement.  It was more like a hurricane.  The clouds burst open and started dumping rain everywhere.  The wind would blow from one direction, and then suddenly switch to another direction.  Dad, Grandpa, and Clint came back drenched by the time they made sure the tents were okay - and they were only out there about 10 minutes.  They seriously looked like they had jumped in a swimming pool completely clothed.  It was bad.  Thankfully we were able to stay inside the trailer and avoid the storm.  We just kept praying that our tents and what was inside would stay dry.  Thankfully the kids weren't too bothered by the storm either.  They stayed entertained with a movie while we waited for the storm to pass.  And it did.  The winds and rain lasted about 45 minutes.  Then it was gone.  We got the men into dry clothes and checked if there was any damage done to the tents.  Thankfully our tent survived and everything inside was dry - all except one little corned that got the very bottom of Dad's sleeping bag a tiny bit wet.  Clint & Hilary's tent wasn't so lucky.  The water gathered and piled on top of their tarp that was sitting under their tent.  So a ton of water soaked up through the bottom of their tent getting everything wet.  They were able to clean it up though and were still able to sleep there.  Because of this crazy storm, we didn't get to bed until about 11pm.  That's pretty late for the kids.

Tuesday morning the kids were awake by 7am and anxious to go swimming.  The plans for the day were to spend all day at the pool.  Unfortunately the pools don't open until 11am, so we had to find things to keep them entertained until then.  We had breakfast, played at the KOA playground where we were staying, and watched the trains.  Then it was time for swimming! 

CJ's favorite part was "going on the red water slide".  It took quite a bit of convincing to get him to try it though.  We had already spent most of the day there before he tried it out.  He really enjoyed it though and went on it 4 times.  CJ also really liked wearing his life jacket and "swimming" out to the 4-feet part of the pool where he couldn't touch.  He LOVED being able to go where he wanted and being able to float and swim.

CD's favorite part was "playing in the water".  At first she was excited to go swimming.  But when we got to the pool she changed her mind.  It took awhile before we could even get her to put her feet in the water.  Then we slowly had to encourage her to go down into the water step by step.  We kept a life jacket on her most of the day.  While she was wearing the life jacket, she wouldn't go any lower than the 2nd step.  She seemed extremely nervous about the water as long as that life jacket was on.  So I took it off her and we tried again to get her in the water.  Without the life jacket we got her to go down to the 4th step all by herself - making the water a little above her waist.  Then she slowly started walking out into the pool and got as deep as her chest.  I then took her out into the 4-feet part by holding her the whole time.  She LOVED it!  She didn't quite understand the danger of the water though, so I held on tight to her the whole time.  I don't think she liked the floating sensation with the life jacket on. But once we took it off, she had a blast!

LM absolutely loved the water too!  She LOVES splashing in the water and got herself soaking wet!  It was a very long day for her, but anytime she was in the water she was happy.  We tried putting her in a floating tube, but she didn't care for it since she couldn't reach the water.  Seriously, as long as she could splash, she was happy.

After our long day of swimming (and a pizza dinner) we went to the hot pools to relax.  LM had to stay in her carseat by the side of the pool so she could sleep.  I didn't know what CJ and CD would think of the "hot" water, but we gave it a shot.  CJ slowly got in and really enjoyed it.  CD would only put her feet in and loved splashing  Grandma.  Grandma was a good sport about the whole thing too.  Dad LOVED the hot pools and spent most of his time away from us in the hottest of the pools.  It was great for his foot.  I tried it, but it was way too hot for me.  It was a good way to end our long day.

Wednesday was the end of our trip.  We had to be out of our camping site by 11am, so we spent the morning cleaning up and packing up.  Then we decided to walk the streets of Lava and do some shopping and sightseeing before leaving.  We also stopped for lunch and ice cream.  After seeing the town - which didn't take too long - we headed on our way home.

Overall we had an awesome time in Lava Hot Springs with my family.  We are hoping to make it an annual tradition.  ;0)

A conversation this morning with CD as I'm taking the sheets off my bed:

CD: "Mom, what are you doing?"
Mom: "I'm changing the sheets on my bed."
CD: "Mom, did you pee on them?"
Mom: "No CD, they are just dirty and it's time to clean them."

Silly girl.  We had to change her sheets yesterday since she had a little accident.  I guess she thought that was the only reason you have to change sheets - because you pee on them.  ;0)

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The older kids really are not a fan of their baby sister playing along with them.  So yesterday they decided to play in the front room and CJ constructed this "wall" to keep LM away from their toys.

I want to play too!