Today BB had outpatient surgery on his eyelid, because it was drooping to the point that it may start to cover the pupil. The doctor figured this procedure would become absolutely necessary eventually (when the eyelid overlaps part of the pupil), and it was already considered medically necessary to do at sometime. My position is that if it is inevitable, let's get it done as young as possible so he remembers as little as possible.
BB was a champ. We went to the surgical center next to the children's hospital. It's in the same building as this doctor's office. Check in went smoothly - no insurance issues at all (yeah!). When we were called back to pre-op and met the nurse, BB told her that the doctor was going to "fix his eye". AMAZING! I had not told him that. I had just said we were going to see the eye doctor. He has already seen him twice, as well as seen another eye doctor (non-surgeon) about every six months since he was six months old. I couldn't believe that BB picked up on this!
BB liked his special pajamas, colored briefly as the anesthesiologist and then the doctor stopped by, and then went willingly with the OR nurse through the door to "find the animals on the wall". He was in there just over an hour before the doctor came out and said everything went very well. I waited about 10-15 more minutes before they brought me back to the recovery room. That's when the fun started!
Because he needed to not touch his eye, they had put splints on his arms to prevent the elbows from bending. He DID NOT LIKE them. He was already starting to fuss as I walked in, and eventually it took two nurses plus me to control him as they gave him two more doses of medicine into his IV. In the meantime, he had wiped his eye on my arm, on the sheet, and had one splint part way off.
Eventually he calmed back down and we were able to take off the splints, let him drink and eat a popsicle, and finally get dressed. In the meantime, the doctor had come into recovery following his next surgery. Luckily, he checked on BB and said all still looked really good. We put the splints back on his arms to go out the door for the ride home. Two bags of goldfish were a good enough bribe!
My little escape artist managed to get both splints loose enough that he could move and bend his arms by the time we were part way home. Thankfully, by then he understood that if he rubbed his eye, it would hurt more instead of less. He did fine once home and the splints came off for good. Actually, he did incredibly well the rest of the day.
I haven't let BB see his face in the mirror. As Buddy put it, "It looks scary." I'm hoping it looks a lot better by tomorrow. We drive across town to check in with the doctor in the morning.
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