The McMillin's: May 2011

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Strabismus (straw-bis-mus)

As most of you know - Kendall had surgery on her eyes yesterday. The doctor said he couldn't be any happier with the way the surgery went and that she did great! I am very proud of my brave little girl!

What is it?
Strabismus surgery (eye muscle surgery) is performed to correct a misalignment of the eyes. If the eyes are out of alignment, one eye or the other is suppressed at any given moment, which impairs visual attention, depth perception and motor skills. It is better to perform surgery as early as possible, because the brain circuits for binocular vision (using the two eyes together) are most adaptable at a young age.

How do they do it?
After your child is fully asleep and under general anesthesia, several eye muscles (usually on both eyes) are repositioned using microsurgery. The eye is rotated, using special instruments, so that the incision can be made in the thin covering over the white of the eye, but the eye is not taken out of the head. Very fine stitches are used to reposition the muscles. The surgery itself is precise and the new position of the muscles is based on the measurements obtained during office visits, and measurements obtained with your child asleep.

A lot of people never noticed her left eye when it would drift off. It didn't happen 24/7 - but was very noticable when she was tired, sick or daydreaming. You can kind of see it in this picture

Pre-op appointment

On the way to Cook Children's Hospital - not too sure about this...

Getting all the stats before we head back

Showing daddy her "bracelets"

It's getting closer...

It was her turn - and they wheeled her off. This is when mommy lost it!

She did great!! About 45 minutes later - she was in recovery. Nana's loves make it better!

We got to go home about noon. My sleepy heads.

Relaxing with daddy

Swinging makes it all better!

Just some post op pics - evening of surgery

Stay tuned for "day after surgery" pics!

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers! We felt them all!!

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Kendall and Mackenna

Today we went to Mackenna's 3rd birthday party at the park. It was fun and Kendall, Mackenna and Cole really seemed to have a good time. They always love playing with each other! After the party, Kendall and I went to Grammy and PaPa's house to open up Mackenna's new water toys she got. They had so much fun!