Aurora Borealis

We made it through the left eye, too, and got home a little after 9:00 this morning.  Cardinal Cadette managed to get her dressing and eye shield off this time almost immediately after getting to our post-surgery observation room.  I told the nurses Dr. Lipsky wanted to be called if she got the dressing off, so they did and he ordered that she go ahead an begin the eye drop regimen.

We’d been doing pretty well with the drops at home.  My technique got better and it was going along pretty well.  Then Tuesday or Wednesday the Cadette decided she’d had enough, and now she’s really clenching her eye shut and fighting me a lot.  It’s really unfortunate, too, because the left eye looks more sore and tender to me after surgery than the right eye did.  Maybe it’s just that she got the dressing off so soon.  It also looks more goopy than the right eye did.  But Dr. Lipsky examined her this morning and said the eye looks good and just to watch it. If the discharge increases, we’re supposed to call him.  Otherwise, we’ll see him in the office in a week.  Her contacts may be in by then, too.  (He was ordering them as he was walking down the hall after surgery to come talk to me.)  Heaven help me, we’ll see if I can get the contacts in her eyes.  He’s commented on how small her eyes are, even relative to other babies.  I guess I’ll have to pick my poison: try to do contact lenses when she fights me even on drops, or try to keep heavy glasses on her when she won’t even keep the little eye shield on.

Dr. Lipsky said that in 20 years he hasn’t had an infant get the shield off so quickly.  And while he was examining her this morning he commented that it’s amazing how much control she has already of her arms and hands.  Makes it challenging for us!

Cardinal Cadette came through her first cataract surgery just fine on Thursday afternoon.   We were home a little after 9:00 on Friday morning.  (Because of her young age, we have to stay overnight so they can make sure she tolerated the anesthesia okay.)  Her doctor (who I really like) keeps saying, “She did great.”  Of course, he also keeps reminding me that this is just the beginning “of an 8-10 year mountain climb” of which this surgery is the easiest part.  Friday morning, when he did her post-op check, he volunteered to put in her first dose of drops for the day (she has to use four different drops) and showed me some tricks for getting them in, so my technique is definitely getting better now.

Next week we do it all again on the left eye.

Fortunately her doctor says “no harm, no foul” if she doesn’t keep her eye shield on — because it keeps coming off!

This afternoon our pastor baptized Cardinal Cadette, with just Mr. Tldz, Agent Murphy, and me in attendance.  (He squeezed us into his schedule before leaving town tomorrow.) We will still have the formal, complete rite on August 21st as originally scheduled, so we can have godparents, family and friends there.  But we wanted her to have the sacrament since she’ll be undergoing cataract surgery with general anesthesia both this week and next week.  Like her brother at his baptism, she slept through the whole thing.  Monsignor even commented that it’s unusual to have a baby behave that well.

After being driven to Cardinal Cadette’s first appointment at the pediatrician yesterday (Sadly, we learned it was the last day there for the pediatrician we have seen the most.  Glad we got to see her one last time.  She’s being replaced by another woman, starting today, so I guess we may meet her next time.), as of today, I’m officially able to drive again.  So Cardinal Cadette and I loaded into the car and went to the drive-thru ATM and the McDonald’s drive-thru for a chocolate shake (for me, not her), then to Walmart for a couple of miscellaneous items.  (We love the stroller frame for the infant car seat.  Great find, Aunty N.!)  It all felt very exciting to me.  The Cadette slept through all of it.

So I consider that my “dry run.”  Cardinal Cadette has a pre-op appointment with the ophthalmologist first thing in the morning, and then we have to swing by Scottish Rite for an anesthesiology consult.  I didn’t want that to be my first time driving in two months, while also sleep deprived.

And, yes, that means I’m settling into a largely sleepless (okay, spurts here and there) routine with the Cadette.  And that’s with nearly full-time help this week.  We’ll see how I do next week with only part-time help.  And then after that I should be on my own with both kiddos.  Yikes!