My Three Sons: Trevin's Surgery

After seeing the pediatric ophthalmologist a couple of times, it was decided that Trevin's eyelids were not going to be able to open up more on their own. He would need surgery. The surgery involved putting U-shaped gore-tex slings in Trevin's eyelids. The slings would make it so that when Trevin raises his eyebrow his eyelids would raise too. The doctor in Vegas told us that there were places in Vegas we could go to have it done, but that if it was her child she would go out of state. We asked where she recommended and she said either Salt Lake or L.A. Obviously we opted for Salt Lake since our families live there. We contacted the place the doctor recommended and waited for the insurance to approve the surgery. It was scheduled for July 10th. We had a consultation with the plastic surgeon the day before the surgery. He was a little concerned that Trevin had something called Double Elevator Palsy. Umm...does that sound scary to anyone else? What it means is that he is unable to move his eyes upward. The doctor said that if that was the case then the surgery might not work. If he could not roll his eyeballs upward when sleeping then his corneas would dry out and the slings would need to be removed. I mostly held it together through the consultation and when we got back to my parent's house. But when I had some time alone, I kind of lost it. Like every parent, I just want my baby to be totally healthy and normal. We decided that a Priesthood blessing was in order. Eric and my dad gave Trevin a blessing the night before the surgery and I felt much better about things.

The morning of the surgery I woke Trevin up at 3:00 to feed him. His surgery was scheduled for 7:30 so he had to fast from 3:30 on. We had to be to the hospital (Primary Children's) at 6:00. Once we arrived, I was feeling very grateful and blessed. There were other children in that waiting room who were much worse off than my little Trevin. We are lucky!

Here we are in the waiting room

Hospital Clothes

Trevin fell asleep while we were waiting to see the doctor

Dr. McCann came to talk to us before the surgery and gave Trevin some nice marks

The anesthesiologist also came to see us before the surgery. He was very nice and reassuring. He promised to take very good care of Trevin. Trevin's nurse also came to see us and promised to take very good care of him and keep us updated. I have to say that I am a huge fan of Primary Children's. Everyone is so nice and comforting. They kept asking us if we had questions and if we needed anything. I was very impressed.

The anesthesiologist walked with us to the room where the surgery would be. We said our goodbyes to Trevin and handed him over to the anesthesiologist. It is possibly one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I am crying now just thinking about it. It was so scary to send my tiny baby off to surgery.

Eric and I grabbed some breakfast from the cafeteria and waited. The nurse did as she promised and called the waiting room to keep us updated. Once the surgery was over, Dr. McCann came to the waiting room to tell us that everything went fine. And he actually had some great news. When they were doing the surgery they were testing Trevin's eye muscles to find out if they were too tight, which may have been why he hadn't been rolling them upward. While they were doing that, he rolled them upward! So exciting!!! No Double Elevator Palsy! They could not get him to do that the day before in the consultation. I attribute it to the Priesthood blessing the night before. I'm so thankful for a faithful husband and father who hold the Priesthood! And so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who provides us with these wonderful blessings! Okay, back to the story. The doctor told us that Trevin was in recovery and one of us could join him in the recovery room shortly. Once they were ready for me, I headed for recovery. When I saw my little guy I wasn't quite convinced that it was him. The poor guy looked so awful.

In the recovery room

Trevin and I were in the recovery room for about 30 minutes while they monitored him and I fed him glucose water. Then they moved us to another recovery room where Eric could join us. They monitored him there for a while and then said that if we felt comfortable, we could leave.

Once we got back to my parent's house, we put a cold wash cloth on his head to try to help with the swelling.

He slept most of the morning and early afternoon. This is how he looked a couple hours after the surgery.

By the late afternoon/early evening, he was smiling and happy and looking a bit better. He was laying on the couch and Kadin came over and said "Who is that?" He thought we had brought home a different baby :)

The next day Trevin was back to his normal self and didn't seem to be experiencing any pain. During the day we have to put eye drops in his eyes every hour. We have to do this for an entire month and he hates them! If we do it while he is eating or while someone is distracting him, it is not as bad. Sometimes he doesn't even cry. He also has nighttime eye drops (more like a gel than a liquid) that we have to put in before bed every night. We have to continue with these until he sleeps with his eyes completely shut. We also have to put antibiotic ointment on the sores twice a day for the next week. Poor kid thinks he is being tortured.

Here is he is four days post-surgery and looking much better.