Terrible pun, no? Today is the follow-up day from my daughter’s eye surgery. Is this the second eye surgery or has there been more? Now that I think about it, there has been a lot of looking and poking at the eyes, but surgery has been done only twice.
The first time was in on December 19th, 2015 (less than three months ago) on her right eye. At that time a partial vitrectomy was preformed in which a portion of the vitreous (jelly in the eye) was removed and replaced with Silicon Oil. Her natural lens was removed at that time as well. There was a lot more done surrounding those two main things, but from that point in December we were hopefully on a path to improve the visual outcome in my daughter’s right eye.
Yesterday her retina surgeon went back into her eye after two months of observations and opened the lens capsule up to see what had transpired behind the now-opacified shield. Today he took off the bandage and we found out…well, there was a hiccup or a complication or maybe I should say a fever and some nausea. Let me explain…
We were seen late for surgery any by the time we left the hospital yesterday my daughter hadn’t had anything to eat for twenty hours. She was hungry and wanted pizza. That went down well and everyone was happy only she kept telling us her tummy was hot and lifting her shirt.
She had been given some Tylenol with codeine at the hospital and we’d filled a prescription for it for the next few days so she would leave the eye alone and feel more comfortable. We did this for the last surgery. The medication made her sleepy so she fell asleep as soon as we got back to the hotel but a short while later woke up feverish and started vomiting.
As an aside here, I’m not sure what I was more concerned about initially when it happened: her comfort or getting her the hell off the bed so I could keep the vomit and stomach acids from seeping through to the mattress. My husband opted for her and I grabbed the bed. I think as a whole we made a good choice because we barely missed the mattress layer and she got over being quickly carried to the bathroom.
My daughter was confused. She had no idea what was going on because—get this—she’s never thrown up that she remembers and she didn’t understand what was going on. That’s why she was saying her tummy was hot—because she was nauseated.
Thus began an interesting night of situational evaluation by my husband and me while dealing with my daughter who was very uncomfortable and cranky. We went through many scenarios: was this a virus she was brewing that coincidentally appeared with a feverous vengeance just as her anesthesia wore off? Was she having an allergic reaction to one of the medications they gave her? Did she have anything new this time because she’s been given pretty much everything and has never had a single problem. Were the side effects normal such as mild nausea and low fever or was she having high fever and major nausea? We couldn’t tell on the temperature because we didn’t have a thermometer. We couldn’t’ tell if it was a reaction to the medication they’d given us or if her vomiting was coincidentally timed because we gave her medicine to swallow? And, above all, should we call in to the emergency line or was this something reasonable we could wait through until morning?
Neither my husband or I wanted to be told to go to the emergency room for a fever and vomiting that seemed manageable so we worked with her through the night. We gave her two lukewarm baths when she said she was hot and gave her fever-reducing medication when it was time. We thought we were through it by morning and took her in early to the first follow-up appointment so we could start on the long trip home.
We were not through it. The vomiting continued on her now very empty stomach. We asked to have a trash can in the doctor’s room when we arrived. My daughter, now on vomit number five, had become an expert. She could tell us before it happened and was able to wait until we got to a sink or had a receptacle. Her retina surgeon said he didn’t expect this was a reaction fever or nausea from the anesthesia this long after administration. He was kind enough to get us a prescription for an anti-emetic for our ride home.
Going back to what happened when the patch was taken off and how we were all excited to see what my daughter could see, well, she was just too tired to care at that point. I’m in communication with her pediatric ophthalmologist at home and we’re going to formulate a plan between now and when we see Dr. Trese in Detroit in four weeks for an in-office follow-up.
The Big Boy Update: My son loves to look at catalogs. We had another Lego catalog come in the mail last week and I saved it for him like it was a toy made out solid candy. He can spent long periods of time looking through a toy catalog and asking you about specific things. He’s been asking my mother to read him the catalog at night while we’re away. He remembers the names for things too. If we had one of the items he would tell my mother, “we have that one”. If it’s my husband or me he’s talking to, he’s likely to ask us to “put this one on my wish list.”
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter has no experience with vomiting. As it happened for the third time she kept telling me, “I’m having a throwing up.”
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