Eye Surgery

Mary Lee took the kids to visit her parents in Cookeville for a few days this week but they should be returning Tuesday or so. Ryan has his first eye surgery scheduled for this coming Friday, July 25th. If you've been following us for the past two years you know that prior to Ryan's brain tumor surgery he had no external, physical problems but as a result of that tumor surgery it caused him to have facial palsy on both sides of his face (can not smile or close his eyes completely) and his right eye has been completely crossed inward. His face has never recovered and his eye has remained crossed. Ahh yes...brain tumor surgery is the gift that keeps on giving! This week's surgery is supposed to help correct his eye to some degree so that it will be pointing straight again. The doctor said he may never have total lateral (side to side) movement in that eye but at least it will be looking straight again. The surgery should only last about two hours and it is outpatient so we should be able to come home that afternoon. The doctor said that his eye will be extremely red afterwards for a little while but that he should be able to run around within a couple of days. I presume that it may take a while for his brain to retrain itself to account for input from that eye again. For the past couple years that eye has been so crossed that his brain just kind of ignored the signal from it and processed what was coming in from the good left eye instead. Doc didn't give us any time table for that though. In the grand scheme of things this surgery is probably fairly minor in comparison to the things we've already dealt with but as a parent each surgery feels like a huge one when it's your child under the knife.
Please pray for our family as this week goes by leading up to Friday. It is always very stressful knowing that something like this is coming in just a few days. Pray for Doctor Estes who will be doing the surgery, for the anesthesiologist, and for the nurses. We've always had really nice nurses in the operation recovery area immediately after other surgeries.