We headed back to Cleveland yesterday. The doctor is very pleased with the results of the surgery so far. Rachel's eye is healing well and the retina is attached. When the doctor did the initial surgery he used a longer acting gas bubble. His thinking was that because Rachel has 3 glaucoma tubes in her eye, the bubble would dissolve more quickly. And if the bubble absorbed too quickly then the retina would not have time to heal properly and we would have to start over. As God would have it, the bubble is still there. It's not a problem, but it does mean several things. For one, she can't see because the bubble blocks her line of vision. And it also means that we have several more weeks (he's guessing 3) of watching her sleep. The last thing is that she can't run, jump, swim, lift things, fly in a plane, drive through the mountains, etc.
Did you ever see the movie Money Pit with Tom Hanks? They are fixing up an old house and every time he asks when the house will be done the answer is "two weeks." Week after week he gets the same answer, and time just drags on. That's how I feel. Last time he said it would be three more weeks, this time he said it would be three more weeks. I think he's a liar. He's really nice, and I like him more than any other specialist we have ever worked with, but he's a liar all the same.
The good new is that I didn't cry. I had seen the bubble in her eye earlier that day while doing drops, so I knew what was coming. It doesn't mean I won't cry over the next three weeks. Ugly cry. Often.
He did say that we can now have the follow ups with the retinal specialist in Cincinnati, rather than driving all the way to Cleveland. That's a really good thing. Although we did have fun going this time. We took all the kids, and Aunt Gretchen, and spent the day doing fun things. I thought a family road trip sounded like a good idea. I was convinced too, until the first bathroom break. We made it to Kenwood before we had to stop. Then I started having second thoughts. But it was fun! And here was the best conversation . . .
Michael: Mommy, Rachel said that they call Cleveland the mistake by the lake.
Me: Yep, they do.
Michael: Why?
Me: Look around
Mike: Michael, that's what they call self explanatory
5 years ago
3 comments:
"Ugly cry. Often." Yup...really looking forward to the next few weeks!!!
Gang, I'm going to try to organize some help for the Petri's if possible. Below is the e-mail that will be going out to the church. Let me know if you are interested!
Dear Grace family,
A few weeks ago Mike and Margie Petri's seven-year-old daughter had surgery to re-attach her retina. Since then she's healing really well, but one of the post-op restrictions is that she must sleep on her stomach. Because of that Margie has to stay up all night to watch her daughter sleep so that she can turn her the right way if she moves... and then they have two other children (2 and 6 years old) so she's not really getting any sleep during the day either! At this point they know that there is going to be three more weeks of this particular restriction. What we're looking for is people who can help Margie with the kids during the morning so that Margie (and Mike, who works third shift) can sleep. We're looking for people that would be able to help from 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning until 12 or 1 in the afternoon. Ideally we'd like for people to be able to go to the Petri's house, but taking them with you would be fine too; you would have to pick them up, though. If you think this is something you can help with, please contact Kara via e-mail: karababy20 at yahoo dot com.
"..shhh girl, shut your lips..."
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