Pre and Post Op

Uriah had surgery on September 2 to lift his right eyelid up. It was hanging low enough to be blocking his vision and if we hadn't done something about it he could have lost vision in his right eye. We had to be at Salt Lake Regional at 6 in the morning. They didn't take Uriah back to have surgery until about 7:15 and we had to try and keep him happy until then. We couldn't let him eat anything before surgery so there were some moments where he just wasn't very happy, but all in all he was a good baby. He loved waving at the people who were working that morning and everyone just thought he was so cute. They pulled out a little red wagon for Uriah to ride around in. He liked that a lot.

Why aren't you feeding me???

Uriah loves to push anything and everything that will move, especially if it has wheels. He finally decided that it would be much more fun to push the wagon than to ride in it.

They gave Uriah infant tylenol mixed with a kind of sedative that would make him a little loopy so that he wouldn't cry when they took him back to surgery, away from mommy and daddy. Sitting in that waiting room was so hard, even though I knew things would be okay. The surgeon came out and told us that everything went better than they had expected and that Uriah's eyelid came up a lot better than most do. The nurses woke him up before we could get back there to him and when we walked back into recovery we could hear him crying. When we got to him he was screaming and crying. I couldn't bear it. Daddy had to hold him and rock him to sleep because I was crying so hard. It broke my heart to see that Uriah couldn't close his eye, that he was all swollen and that his tears were coming out red from the surgery. I know he was just scared and couldn't understand what was going on, but the fact that he hadn't eaten or gotten much sleep probably didn't make him feel better either. Finally we got the nurses to give him some motrin and daddy rocked him to sleep. When we got him back to where we were staying he was alert and awake for about an hour, but the rest of the day he was completely out of it.

This is the best his eye looked before the swelling started to really come in.

Uriah is sleeping in this picture. He can't close his eye all the way because the muscles they sewed together are still pretty tight. Eventually he will be able to teach himself how to shut his eye again, but for now we have to make sure it stays nice and moist and does't dry out.
This was Uriah sleeping on the ride back home. The poor little guy was just so exhausted and slept almost until we got home. As soon as we got him home he started acting like himself again. He didn't even act like his eye bothered him that much. I really think it has made a difference in how well he can see too. It has been a week since the surgery and Uriah looks great. The swelling has almost gone all the way down. He still looks a little black and blue but that is getting better every day. I am so thankful for the doctor who recommended the treatment and for the surgeons and for everyone at the hospital. They really knew what they were doing and they were so gentle and good to Uriah and to us. This surgery has been a good experience for all of us.