Surgery 2 & 3 - May 28, 2020 & July 13, 2020

 One surgery/procedure down, one to go, right? 

Wrong! Surgery/procedure one was just a prequel to 6 more. Not all eye related, but still. 

After his first surgery and everything going so well, I wasn't as nervous about the second one. The doctor had looked at both eyes during the first surgery, so he knew that they both looked pretty good. Removing the other cataract should be smooth sailing. And it was. 

But Henry's eyes are way smaller than 'standard', so not only did the cataract pose concerns, but everything is kind of smooshed in there and glaucoma became a secondary concern. Par for the course at this point, so we thought.

This was a late surgery. He wasn’t in recovery till the evening and there was a chance we would be admitted overnight. I was not prepared for that at all. I literally started crying when the nurse mentioned it. I was exhausted for so many reasons, my hormones were all messed up still and I was a mess. I didn’t have extra pump bottles to get me through a night or anywhere to store my milk. 

And my sweet boy just held my finger…loving on his mama without evening knowing what it meant. We were able to go home that night. I think it’s was 9 or later and we both crashed. 

I remember middle of the night feedings, when it was just us and I would tell him, “it’s me and you bud, I got you”. I don’t think I fully understood how much that meant for the next year and lifetime. While we have the support of family and friends, I’ve been Henry’s constant through this. With no visitors and limited parents at appointments, it’s been an exhausting journey and at this point in it, he was only a few months old! We had no idea how much more would get thrown at us…

As time has gone on, things don't surprise me as much. It's weird. Your whole mindset changes on what to expect or be surprised by. What small milestone are celebrated. Things you never would have thought. Things that are so normal, you would never think to be excited about it, but here we are! 

Henry's eye pressure was up after the second surgery, so his doctor recommended we see a glaucoma specialist. Here we go! 

Honestly, I think at this point, I had in my head that Henry was going to be blind. I think that is what I thought might be the 'worst' of it and we talked about how to change our home to help him get around. How do you teach a blind baby to get around? Turned into how do you get a blind special needs baby who has no muscle control around? 

Henry's eyes are getting better. He's still on sodium drops everyday, but I can live with that if it means he can see, even a little. 

So about a week after his second eye surgery, he went in to get the glaucoma consult. One of the few things that went right here, she didn't find any major concerns. YAY! Not out of the woods, but no further surgery required to help with the pressure. 

Henry's had more eye appointments in 18 months, I fell like I've had ever! He did get some pretty stylish glasses to hold him over till we were able to order his and get them in LOL 

Yea, try explaining how a 6 week old baby wearing pink glasses, is in fact a boy... Wowza! haha

We did get some good laughs out of how ridiculous he looked. You just had to laugh. They were huge! But we found some pretty sweet ones for him and he's grown into them so much!! 

He's actually about to get his second pair in the next week or so. I'm pretty excited. He's going to look so grown up!!