tuesday

A couple of weeks ago we traveled to OHSU (Casey Eye Institute) in Portland for Weredesh's eye consult. Turns out she's having surgery THIS COMING TUESDAY! It was determined that her eye crossing was not a focusing problem, but rather due to her eye muscles. If it were a focusing problem, wearing her glasses should have corrected the crossing. Being she's worn her glasses for many months and we have seen little to no change, the surgeon will be correcting this and from what we understand, she will most likely not need her glasses anymore! How cool is that!? And I know the glasses are dang cute, but she is SO INCREDIBLY beautiful without them. That little precious face!

What's most worrisome is not the surgery itself (the procedure is very common), but rather the anesthesia. Which I understand is also very common, but everyone knows the dangers of anesthesia. I know everything will be just fine, but as a mother it's necessary to worry, right? :)

Recovery time is next to nil which is amazing. Dr. Karr said that she will be back to her normal busy self the next morning after breakfast! ( I would have been happy with a day of rest.) We will need to apply an ointment daily to prevent infection, she might have some blood-tinged tears for the first couple of days, and could possibly have double vision for up to a week due to the fact that her eyes might turn outward a bit at first until the muscles relax after surgery. She'll have to get used to two mommies and two daddies! So, she will go under general anesthesia and all of the surgery is done on the surface of the eyeball. A small incision is made on the surface, at the side of the eyeballs where the muscles are then "tightened", straightening them out.

We will be traveling to Portland tomorrow and staying at the Residence Inn until Tuesday. What's great about this is we'll have an actual apartment so that Weredesh can take her naps in the bedroom, go to bed at her normal time while we hang out in the living room, cook in the kitchen, etc. Our home away from home. And thank you so much to our friends the Hammers for their generous gift going toward our stay there. Coincidentally, Cory has a class he needs to take in Portland on Saturday, then we have her pre-op on Monday and surgery on Tuesday. So we'll get a nice long weekend in Portland. One of our plans is to take Weredesh out for her first Ethiopian dinner while we're there. And possibly hook up with another mom and one of Weredesh's orphanage mates, Sabah, whom we met while in Ethiopia. And since it's an outpatient procedure, we will be able to take Weredesh home Tuesday afternoon. Wish us luck!

Pics from our last road trip to Portland: