Surgery 2

We checked in at 7:00 am on Friday for Kevin's surgery. Since he would have to be put under I was not supposed to feed him anything after 4:00 am. I fed him at 2:30 then set an alarm for just before 4:00 so I could make sure he got one last feeding. He had no interest in waking up at 4:00 sand I was tired so I didn't push it. By the time they finally were ready to put him under, he had been without any food for probably 6 hours and was still all smiles...


Eventually they checked all his vitals and dilated his eye. We had to put him in little hospital jammies...

Isn't he cute? Dr. Larson puts a black mark over the eye so there are no mistakes.

They predicted an hour and a half for the surgery but it took longer. I tried not to worry about it because I trust Dr. Larson.
He came out of the surgery for a consultation with us and told us that he removed the cataract but could not get the lens to stay in place. Apparently his eye just isn't rigid enough yet. He attempted putting the lens in more than once and every time he put the eye back up to pressure the lens would fall back in his eye. Hence the reason it took longer.
Kevin eventually work up and I was standing there when he did. I fed him a bottle of glucose water then tried to nurse him. He was still a little too out of it to succeed nursing so I tried to pump without much luck. I decided to just give him some formula for the first time in his life so he could just be fed and happy. After eating he went back to sleep.

He was pretty lethargic after the surgery because the anesthesia take a full 24 hours to really ware off.
They sent us home with a steroid drop, an antibiotic drop, a dilating drop, and a cream for the night. I had these drops last time but this time I have to do even more often! It's insane. Every time I look at the clock I think Oh geese I forgot his ______ drop.
Saturday I met with the Dr. again just to make sure nothing looked strange. He is such a caring doctor. He admitted that he had been thinking of Kevin a lot over the last 24 hours trying to decide what's best for him. He genuinely wants to figure out what is best for every patient.
We are meeting again a week from Monday to discuss what's next.
Kevin will be back to wearing a lens. During this surgery he took a lot of measurements and found that Kevin has a pretty strong astigmatism. This is why his lens never fit very well. He will probably end up getting a hard contact lens that will be custom fit.

In the grand scheme of things, it's really not that big of a deal. As far as birth defects go, it's a pretty mild one. Kevin is a fabulous baby.
I actually got some money for participating in a birth defects national study ;)

seeing... take 2

Cataract removal #2 is scheduled for 1 week from Friday (25th)... Sad day. His cataract has grown back. This just happens sometimes with congenital cataracts. It's like the body is trying to heal itself. Dr. Larson said they are working on developing an eye drop that kills those cataract cells without killing the whole eye but for now it doesn't exist so Kevin is back to being totally blind in his left eye until the next surgery.

Since we haven't been having the best luck with contact lens fit for Kevin, and he is a little older, and we have to go in and do another surgery any way, we will most likely be putting an IOL (intraocular lens) in his eye this time.

(The caption says replace the old lens but he currently has no lens at all)

He will still need corrective glasses but they will not need to be +26 like his contact lens is. This means no more contact cleaning or shoving in his eye for me. It also removes the fear if losing $250 all the time. (Hooray for no longer digging in the vacuum dust!)

Donations are now being accepted in my wallet. ;) In all seriousness though this stresses me out. Insurance or no insurance 20% of the cost of 2 surgeries and 2 unrelated hospital stays really adds up! My insurance coverage is done with April 25th. Pray for us!

The good news is that I am told regularly that Kevin is quite possibly the sweetest baby people have EVER seen.

Little Miss

Doe anyone else ever just look at your kids and think when did you grow up so much?

Kaylee is getting so tall! She talks and sings and dances. Sometimes she is so mature in what she says. She's even getting the whole toilet and panties thing figured out! She can be a pain but she also makes us LAUGH. She does all the normal 2 year old things but we still think it's amazing like most parents. She LOVES reading with daddy (I get her new books from the library every couple weeks) She loves to make animal sounds and points out letters and colors. She loves any song that has actions involved (like tea pot, hoky poky, popcorn, etc...)

I've been meaning to get this on video to show her someday for a while. She's mumbling a little because there is candy in her mouth but you get the idea.

Love her!