I noted a while back that Elena was going to have surgery to correct her strabismus; the surgery was originally scheduled for July 26, but was postponed until September 13 (that's yesterday).
The surgery was at the Children's Hospital of Michigan. The hospital gave us a nice brochure, with pictures, about getting kids prepared for surgery - telling them what to expect, what things will look like, and what they're expected to do. Elena took the preparations for surgery in stride; she seemed a little nervous, but was OK with doing whatever was expected of her. (I think the willingness to go along with these medical things is another aspect of learned orphanage behavior I talked about before.)
Surgery was scheduled for 2pm, but was actually underway more quickly than that. We were prepared to spend a long time in the waiting room, but wound up spending only about five minutes, after which it was a quick but orderly march through the pre-surgical procedures. Here's Elena in her scrubs:
The procedure only takes a couple stitches to complete, but those stitches are on the eyeball. When Elena woke up post-surgery, she was pretty miserable, and spent some time curled up on Teresa's lap and whimpering as the anesthetic wore off. The pain seems to come and go, and after some experimentation, Elena decided to just keep her eyes closed (which, according to the opthamologist, isn't unusual).
Since then, we've been dosing her every few hours, alternating between Children's Advil and Children's Tylenol (alternating medicines allows more pain relief without going over the dosage limit on either medicine). She had a fitful night, and so far today has kept her eyes squeezed completely closed. She even "watched" some of her favorite videos without opening her eyes, which is more amusing than you might think: the videos are either in Russian or in nonsense penguin language, and so are completely unintelligible to someone who doesn't speak either Russian or nonsense penguin language. But she's familiar enough with the sounds of individual episodes that she even asks for the funniest parts to be played twice, ID'ing the action solely from the music and sound effects.
So a successful surgery, and Elena's been a trooper so far, but I think it really hurts. :(
The surgery was at the Children's Hospital of Michigan. The hospital gave us a nice brochure, with pictures, about getting kids prepared for surgery - telling them what to expect, what things will look like, and what they're expected to do. Elena took the preparations for surgery in stride; she seemed a little nervous, but was OK with doing whatever was expected of her. (I think the willingness to go along with these medical things is another aspect of learned orphanage behavior I talked about before.)
Surgery was scheduled for 2pm, but was actually underway more quickly than that. We were prepared to spend a long time in the waiting room, but wound up spending only about five minutes, after which it was a quick but orderly march through the pre-surgical procedures. Here's Elena in her scrubs:
 |
| Banana yellow scrubs. Elena specifically requested the "doctor hat" and stethescope. |
Since then, we've been dosing her every few hours, alternating between Children's Advil and Children's Tylenol (alternating medicines allows more pain relief without going over the dosage limit on either medicine). She had a fitful night, and so far today has kept her eyes squeezed completely closed. She even "watched" some of her favorite videos without opening her eyes, which is more amusing than you might think: the videos are either in Russian or in nonsense penguin language, and so are completely unintelligible to someone who doesn't speak either Russian or nonsense penguin language. But she's familiar enough with the sounds of individual episodes that she even asks for the funniest parts to be played twice, ID'ing the action solely from the music and sound effects.
So a successful surgery, and Elena's been a trooper so far, but I think it really hurts. :(
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