Leila's Surgery

Our sweet Leila had to have surgery today. She has had blocked/clogged tear ducts since she was born, so her eyes are always goopy and teary. Her doctor had us wait until she was 1 year old before we did anything about it because generally, by the time kids are 1, it clears up on its own. Hers didn't. If they don't clear on their own by 1 year, they will never clear up and they will have this problem for the rest of their lives...unless they have surgery. We decided that it would be best to go ahead with it.

We checked in at 8:30 this morning, and got Leila changed into the cute hospital gown and pants. She wasn't too sure about it at first.


Then she was fine.

I got a bunch of pictures! I just thought she looked so cute!

I had to get one of the back. So cute.

We went from one waiting room to another, and then the doctor came over to talk for a second, and then the anesthesiologist came over to go over some things. He then led us down a hall as far as they would let me go, and then told me to give her hugs and kisses. I got a little emotional, but held it together. Then he said it was time to hand her over. She went right to him and then realized that he was taking her away so she started to cry. So did I. They went through the double doors, and I could hear her crying all the way down the hall.

I then headed downstairs to call Brock and let him know to be there in about 30 minutes. Yeah, it was a short, very routine operation. But I was still nervous none the less. They put her under general anesthesia, and that alone made me nervous. The doctor had to go in and "probe and irrigate" her tear ducts.

After calling Brock, I headed back up to the 3rd waiting room until they called saying Leila was done. I got to go to her bed and see her. She was lying there peacefully. They said everything went perfectly, and that she was doing great. I got to hold her while they finished some things up there, and then they took us to another room where Brock got to meet us. He held her there until she woke up. She was scratching her nose a lot. They said that that is normal. They seem to be itchy when they wake up. Her tears were a bit pink, but other than that, she looked great. We sat with her until they released her, which was about 45 minutes or so.

They wanted to make sure she would drink something before we left.

I tried to get a close up of her eyes, but my camera was blurry.

She has a blood pressure cuff on her right leg (which was taking her blood pressure in this picture, and she wasn't a fan), and the IV is in her left leg. They have to stabilize the IV with that white thing on her leg.

You can see the IV better in this picture.

Finally the nurse is taking all this stuff off of her.

Happy girl.

Now her foot is all bandaged up.

They let us get her dressed so we laid her in her bed to change her diaper and dress her. She just wanted to play with daddy.

So happy!

All ready to go. We're so glad everything went well, and we're so grateful to all those who prayed in her behalf.