FFF: Karis' Eye Surgery

In early December of 2015, Karis had eye surgery on both of her eyes to fix her strabismus (crossed eyes).  Before surgery was necessary, Karis' eye doctor had tried other means of straightening out her eyes (like patching and glasses and even bifocals).  However, none of these treatments were ultimately effective (though the patching did have some short term benefits).

In the Fall of 2015, when we learned that Karis would need surgery, we changed eye doctors to one who was in our state and who also had a better bedside manner.  To be honest, the new eye doctor also had a much smoother office visit system, which made our appointments with him almost effortless (given that I was bringing a few extra kids along for the appointments, this was a BIG deal to me!!).  Anyway, the new doctor did due diligence with Karis in hearing her story, asking about our concerns, giving his recommendations, and then preparing us for surgery.

On the day of surgery, we had to leave our home around 4:00 am in order to arrive to the hospital before 7:00.  Hugh and the kids dropped Karis and I off at the hospital, and then they headed off to eat breakfast and play at a children's museum (which they all loved!).  Karis (who hadn't eaten since dinner the day before) was a trouper in every sense.  We had quite a few lengthy waits in different rooms, met innumerable doctors, nurses, and staff (all of whom she heartily greeted), and eventually I had to give her to a complete stranger so that they could put her under general anesthesia.  Not once did my sweet girl cry or complain!  Now I, on the other hand, boo-hoo-ed like a baby, especially during the final round of questions from the anesthesiologists.

waiting... waiting... and waiting some more

right after surgery

Her surgery lasted around one hour as expected, and everything went great.  After she began waking back up, they allowed me to hold her and comfort her.  She was so pitiful, and was hardly consolable when I first found her because she wasn't all the way awake yet.  After one dose of morphine however, she calmed down and then when she was finally 100% awake, she seemed to not be in pain.   After another hour or so of checking vitals and learning about how to care for her, they released us just in time for Hugh and the kids to have finished lunch and be ready for a nap on the ride home.  Karis wasn't interested in eating lunch, and she wasn't able to keep her post-surgery apple juice down either, but after we got home, she was willing to eat.  The rest of that day Karis was somewhat tired and lethargic.

Groggy at dinner that first night after surgery.

The next morning, however, she was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as normal, only with very very red eyes!  The redness was mainly on the insides of her eyes, where the doctor had altered the eye muscle.  Over about 2-3 weeks time, the redness faded.  We did use eye ointment for the first week to prevent infection.  Karis was over-joyed when we no longer had to put it in her eyes!  At our one week visit to her doctor, he said everything looked great, and we really haven't had any trouble with her eyes since then!  We will go back to her doctor in a few months for one more check up, but at our last visit he said he didn't expect that she would need glasses or more surgery.  :)

These two photos show how red eyes were in the first few days after surgery:

And one last look at a before:

And after:  

It's amazing how I didn't even notice how much her eyes were crossing before surgery!  Now when I look back at photos, I am so so thankful for the Lord's provision of Karis' eye doctor's skilled hands!!!  Praise God for a smooth and successful surgery for our sweet girl!