Another One With An Update

Sorry for another boring post. People keep asking about Paige, and this is the best way to get the word out.

We had her follow up appointment with Dr. Hoffman yesterday. As of right now, it seems she won't need any more eye muscle surgeries which is probably the worst of all of the surgeries we've had to consider. We are very happy about that. We will, though, still need an eye lid lift surgery as of how things look right now. Her eyes are still tearing, after having the tear duct probe twice. I am not sure what we will do for that, though. We have another appointment in 4 weeks to just make sure everything is going as well as it seems. Dr. Hoffman has been really great to work with.

I also had an appointment this week, and it seems there is a high chance I will need surgery also.

What are the chances that all 3 of us need surgery within a few months of each other??

I have had 8 sinus infections within the past year and a half, so I finally decided enough is enough. I have loved my doctor, and we are trying to see if medicine will help enough that I will not need surgery, but she thinks surgery will be in the books for me. Honestly, I am happy to try anything, even if it means surgery. Most days it takes all I have to stay awake, and I just found out that is because of my chronic infections. I am so happy that there are options and that there is help out there for us.

Our insurance is up at the end of June (it lasted a year and a half this time...), so our goal is to have all of our surgeries done by then. We're close to meeting our out of pocket deductible :)

After going to both of our appointments this week I am very optimistic, even if it means surgeries, it will also mean that things will be better in the near future. I am so grateful for insurance & smart doctors!

The One Where She Does Tricks

Paige has learned so many fun new things lately. It's been so much fun. I love this age.

I took this picture the day after her surgery. She's showing you where her head is. She's such a little smarty pants. :)


This video sums a good chunk of them up.

The One Where She Had Her Surgery Already!

Last time I blogged, I said that Paige's surgery was scheduled for the end of April. Good news, they had a cancellation so they bumped us up to this past Monday. So, she had her first official surgery already.

This time, they redid the tear duct probe (this time with a bigger balloon... hoping that this time will be the last time) and an eye muscle surgery. They detached a muscle behind both eyes and reattached it, in hopes that it would help her to move her eyeballs up and down, and open her eye lid openings.

Her surgery was scheduled for 2:30 this time, so she was ready to eat and sleep by the time we were checking in and getting her checked out. The camera came in handy then, to distract her for a minute.




I think this picture sums up how she feels about her surgery...


The surgery was a pretty big deal. It took about an hour and a half (we were in the waiting room longer than most of the other parents). She, of course, really didn't like coming out of anesthesia, but eventually it wore off.


She has been doing so much better than I thought she would. I didn't know exactly what to expect, but I figured it would take her a week or so to get to the point where she is today. Each day she looks better and better, and each day her eye openings open a tiny bit more too. She still has goopy and bloodshot eyes, but other than that, doesn't look all that different.

I took these pictures yesterday (one day after surgery)...


She's not super thrilled about life, but I sure was thrilled that she was doing so well.

This picture isn't a good picture at all of her, but I had to show it because I FINALLY got a picture where her teeth were peeking through! She never shows them (especially in pictures).


We have a follow up appointment at the end of the month to go over things with the doctor. There's a chance she will still need more surgeries (2 or more), but so far I am optimistic since her eye openings are opening this soon.

Thanks so much for the calls, texts, and messages again. We are so lucky to have such a great support system around us.

The One With An Eye Update

Sheesh! The past 5 weeks have been a whirlwind.

We've basically had someone sick (or having an allergic reaction) the whole time, minus the 2 most important dates in those 5 weeks - Paige's 1st procedure & Paige's 1st birthday party! I can't believe how lucky we got that we were all healthy for those two important events.

I was able to take Paige to her followup appointment with Dr. Hoffman at Primary Children's this past week, and we scheduled procedure number two for the end of April. This one is a surgery on the muscles behind her eyes. They are too tight and the doctor will reattach them so they will be looser. Poor girl, I have been reading the papers they gave me and to be honest, I think it will be hard a hard one for all of us. The first procedure didn't work as well as we had hoped, but the doctor said they can give it a whirl again during this upcoming surgery. I'm so glad that we have Dr. Hoffman. He's been so great, and he really knows his stuff.

Paige has been getting more and more fun every day. She's learning things like, what a duck says, where her head is, where the light is, and a few other things. I love this age. She's been so much fun.