Trip to Egleston ...

Last night before Leighton went to sleep he said "Mama, they're not gonna put those drops in my eyes are they" ... I just had to tell him not to worry about it right then and to get some sleep ... he fell asleep shortly after our very sad (for me) conversation and slept well thru the night.  The rest of us slept as best we could ... after around 3 this morning I know Josh and I seemed to get better sleep than earlier in the evening.  Then my alarm went off ... BOO!

This morning started out a little rough ... Leighton is not used to being told he cannot have things to eat and he really wanted some fruit snacks and Cheerios for breakfast (which he couldn't have) but we did finally get him to take down some jello and popsicles before he got completely cut off from all food and drink at 10:30.  We got to the hospital a little early and expected to wait forever since his procedure wasn't supposed to take place until 2:30 ... but they called us back even before what was supposed to be our arrival time (11:30) ... We got to the room and the lady came in to do his first round of eye drops ... He was NOT happy about that ... but we held him down and got him dilated (well round one) ... a few minutes later he got his happy boy cocktail and was a LITTLE better far drops round two. 

 

This picture was taken after he was "drunk" and the doctor came in to mark over his bad eye and explain to us all of the possibilities about what might happen once they figure out exactly what is wrong with his eye and why the fluid is getting behind his retina.  Shortly after that (after lots of laughs because my child was super loopy), the nurses came to get Leighton and they took him away ... The doctor came to see us about 45 minutes later to tell us that he was pretty sure he found a little tiny tear in the side of Leighton's retina so he was going to go ahead and operate and it would take about 2 hours.  They put a band around his eyeball to close up the tear. They said it is nothing he will feel, but it will make his eye swollen and red for a while and his little eyelid might be droopy for quite some time ... there is a 70-80% chance this will fix the problem ... we will be back and forth to Atlanta for at least the next few weeks for check-ups.

Right this minute I am typing one handed because Leighton woke up and wanted to lay with me ... he is on some pretty strong medicine but is still not a very happy boy ... when he woke up for those few minutes, he ate a little and drank a sip of water and a few sips of apple juice but the next few days he will probably be a pretty pitiful boy ... he even pointed to his eye and mumbled "mama, I got a booboo" ... Poor baby!!

I'm sure I forgot something so if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to comment and I will answer as soon as I get a chance!

- C

PS - I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers and continued support because we could not make it through all of this without you guys!!!