Our second day in Hawaii... was an early one. We headed to the Pediatrics Intensive Care Unit in the morning at 6:30, for Charlotte to be admitted for her sedated MRI. Oh it was a tough day having to wake up the little one to be there that early... and then sit through a 2 hour procedure... to have my sweet little one wake up as a complete and utter monster. Crabby as can be, as soon as she was able to tolerate fluids, we headed back up the hill to our lodging, where she slept the entire day away. They said her body had tons of metabolizing (of the sedatives) to do, but boy, I didn't think it was going to be ALL day. In the late afternoon, I woke her up, and we spent a bit of time outside... where she was still wobbly and unable to walk straight and by herself. We did manage to play in the grass for quite sometime, and I was able to "take in" the sight of her sweet little "silly/crooked" eyes for the very last time. It's amazing how attached to them I've become... how I have LOVED them, and how they gave Charlotte some sort of weird quirk that was unique to her....
You see, according to the ophthalmologist, whenever Charlotte's eyes would "cross", depending on which one, she would see whatever it was she was looking at, "split"... yes, half of me would be in one part of her line of vision, and the other half of me, in a separate part. So, when looking at me, for instance when I would have her "say cheese" for the camera, it has always looked like she would just stare passed me... If she stared RIGHT at me, one of her two eyes, or both, would certainly be crossed. As you can see in the picture above, and below.
So to deal with this... so that she wouldn't have "crossed eyes", she would raise her head slightly and peek at me... and this allowed her to look "straight" at me, without "crossed eyes"... as pictured below... and as you've seen on SO many of my blog posts.
This poor little one has been living with these eyes for over 4 years... and although I've grown to LOVE them, I knew that this surgery was a much needed one. Her brain is awfully confused, and doesn't always know how to process what she's seeing. One of the things that this surgery will do, is leave her with eyes that can focus on objects more clearly. If we were in a new environment, that she doesn't know, we could walk by a playground and it wouldn't even phase her... she could walk by a bowl of lollipops and not even notice them. She would be so concentrated on just walking carefully without falling, that she couldn't focus on anything else.
Usually I would have to point things out to her... for instance while playing outside, I showed her these beautiful yellow leaves (yellow has become one of her favorite colors these days), and how they look like pinwheels... and she didn't even "see" them, until I passed them over to her. She wasn't sitting right beside them, and yet they went unnoticed.
Once noticed, she played for over an hour with them, and thought they were the BEST thing ever. Everyday following that day, she wanted to stop and say "hi" to the leaves... because she knew they were there... they were noticed.
The next morning, we had to check into the Surgical Admissions Center at 7:30 am (we got to sleep in for 1 hour longer than the previous day). Once checked in, Charlotte was given her "pajamas" to change into...so thankful to Tripler Army Medical Center for having YELLOW colored ones for her. She was ECSTATIC to change into them. We had to wait until 10 am... which was probably the toughest wait we've had yet. Charlie kept asking me for water and breakfast, and I kept having to say, " later sweetheart." I took some last few photos of those sweet little eyes, to remember them one last time... I'm pretty sure she was really annoyed with me at that point.
Thankfully the anesthesiologist came in at just the right moment... she was so sweet, and told Charlotte that she was going to go to sleep for awhile... to which my little bug took the sheets on her bed, pulled them up to her chest, and stated, "Okay everyone, it's time to hibernate... like da bears." Yup, she pulled out a Sesame Street "Word of the Day" from one of her favorite episodes (about Little Bear trying to hibernate), and it left EVERYONE in the room with side stitches from laughing so hard. We rolled her into the operating room, where I stayed with her until she "fell asleep". As I was leaving, the doctor ordered me to get some coffee, get something to eat, and then to rest as much as I could with a nap in the family waiting room. But who can rest while their little one is being operated on? I did not get coffee (until well later)... I did not get anything to eat (even though my stomach was growling)... and I certainly didn't take a nap... instead I went to my Heavenly Father for rest, and spent the entire 2.5 hours in prayer over my little girl. It was the BEST rest I could have asked for...
She slept another 1.5 hours after the surgery was completed. Charlotte's doctor said it "went well" and that we would have results of her MRI by her follow up appointment (a week later)... and that today when she wakes up, it was going to be a whole new world for her. Charlotte's exact words when she woke up to me rocking her in a chair, were, " Oh wow, look at 'dat"... and then she fell back asleep off on for the entire rest of the day. We were discharged later that afternoon, and had a lazy day in our room, and an early night. I sat outside all that late afternoon, while she was sleeping, and just praised God for the work He had done (and took in the beautiful view of Pearl Harbor)... not just for the doctors and that they healed her eyes, but for having opened my eyes, and my husband's eyes to the "unnoticeable"... the orphans... If our eyes hadn't been opened, we would NEVER have met our daughter... and she might not ever have been noticed.
We had a rough night... I had to make sure she didn't "rub" her eyes, and had to wipe all of the bloody tears that were flushing out of her eyes throughout the night (from her ointment). But that next morning, Charlotte was fully charged, and ready to finally SEE Hawaii... and so was I!
