All Is Well

Parker's appointment on Friday was really good. He's cleared to play again! Yeah! We're down to only 4 drops a day. We'll be doing that for at least another month. And, better yet, we don't have to see the doctor again until his next surgery. A HUGE weight has been lifted! So, tomorrow we will start to wade through the mess that our house has become so that we can be "normal" for a few weeks before we do this again.

On a funny note... While I was out today I got a voicemail from Eric and Parker that had them telling me that Parker peed in the potty. That's the good news. The bad news is that Eric let Parker take the "pee bucket" (as he calls it) out of the kid potty and sit in Eric's lap with the "pee bucket" between his legs. Such a guy! I'm laughing so hard right now. Girls? Moms? Would you ever take the bucket out and let your kid sit in your lap to pee? Anyways, potty training is the next thing on the list. Looks like it's off to a weird start. But, hats off to my husband. He got Parker to pee in the potty today. Hmm.

One Week

It's been one week since the surgery. Maybe one day I'll have something else to write about.

Those of you who know me well, know that I am the type of person that HAS to get out of the house everyday. This week has been hard for me. I think it's been hard for Parker too. He keeps asking to go play with friends. We had a great visit from my friend Vicki and her daughter yesterday. Then, today I decided to take the kids to the aquarium because it would be a "safe" place to play. Parker ended up tripping and hitting his head, which resulted in an afternoon full of doctors, nurses, long phone calls, and a tired 2 year old. I've always had a problem with patience. I guess I should have waited to take him out. BUT, tomorrow we go for a checkup. Hopefully everything will be fine and we will be cleared to do more.

Parker and Haley relax with a little bit of Wonder Pets.

Parker's nice head wound.

Abigail eating a frozen waffle. Gotta love teething time!

Abigail's first riding toy.

Overwhelmed

We are overwhelmed with gratitude for everything that all of you are doing for us. We haven't had to cook a meal yet. We've been loaded with phone calls, emails. cards. etc. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Parker is doing really well. He didn't put up a fight today when I tried to put the patch on his eye. The bribe of the day for drops is M&M's. He gets 2 M&M's when he gets a drop. He even asked for a drop a few minutes ago. He's wilder than ever. I attribute it to being able to see for the first time in months. He's just excited. But, with his excitement comes stress for me. I love seeing him happy, but it's extremely difficult to keep him calm. The rules from the doctor are no running, climbing, jumping, bending, pushing, or pulling. Yeah, right.

With looking after Parker and Abigail there really isn't time to cook. And, we're still trying to keep him away from germs of eating out. So, all that to say, you all have been a HUGE blessing. I'm totally humbled by how God has used you all to take care of us.

Drops, Patches, and a New Bed

I'm sitting here drinking my glass of red wine, watching my son in the monitor go to sleep. It's been a long couple of days. Eric finally discovered that if we gave drops to the babydoll that P would take them easier himself. P actually gives the babydoll drops sometimes too. Cookies and lollipops help too. I think P is doing extremely well. He wears his glasses all day, and he only wears the patch for naps and bedtime. He's not a fan of the recovery routine, but he's hanging in there.

We decided that he needed something fun and new. He wants so badly to "go pway and find fwiends" as he would say. So, we bought him a "big boy" bed. We've been thinking about it for a long time. We've been putting it together off and on since lunch. Tonight when I finally finished putting on the sheets and comforter Eric told Parker that he could go see his new bed. He jumped up, ran to the stairs, and came bursting into the room. He literally squealed with delight. He's so excited, I don't know when he'll actually fall asleep. He needed something fun. He needed something to take his mind of the drops and patch. And, I guess I needed it too.

Enjoy the pictures...

Parker and his baby ready for bed

Eric enjoys the new bed with Parker

P climbing on his bed

The Day After

Parker woke up in a great mood. He watched Little Einsteins just like normal. I told him that we were going to get in the car and go see the eye doctor again. He said, "We can't go to the doctor. We can't." He kept saying it as we drove to the doctor's office. The appointment went well. We got to see pictures and a video of the surgery. Parker cried every time the doctor looked at him. But, he could see. We're not really sure to what extent. His eye should continue to gain vision and heal for the next month. I do know that it did something because after the appointment, Parker kept rubbing his left eye (not the one that's been corrected) and saying that his eye was dirty. So, I think he can now tell that the cataract is messing up his vision in his left eye, making it look "dirty". And, that means his right eye is better.

We just started our drops routine. 12 a day and they cannot be at the same time. It's really hard. I hate making my son scream. And, it physically takes 2 of us to do it. I'm nervous about next week when Eric goes back to work.

I think we're doing okay. We are so happy and relieved that the surgery was successful. Eric and I didn't sleep last night because we had to watch Parker and make sure he didn't rub his eye or take his patch off. I'm emotional today. It's probably a combination of being tired and being overwhelmed at the recovery process. I think I was focusing so much on the surgery that I didn't realize all that would come after. So, if I don't return calls today, that's why. On the other hand, when Parker isn't getting drops or having to put the patch on, he's as happy as can be.

Thanks for all of your prayers. We feel them and we need them. The surgery for his left eye is now scheduled for February 19.

Here are some pictures from our adventures:

In recovery.

Last night at home, eating green pancakes again.

In the car this morning. All smiles about some chicken minis.

The drops.

Home

So, 5pm to 6pm could possibly be the worst hour of my life. Parker had a really hard time waking up from the anesthesia. He immediately started trying to pull off his patch and take out his IV. He's calmed down a lot now. We just got home. He's eating green pancakes and goldfish and watching Monsters Inc.

I only have one picture right now from Eric's phone. I'll upload more later tonight when I'm on my awake shift. It's been such a long day. But, I'm glad to be home and to see my little boy asking for his favorites.

Thank you for your prayers! We'll know more tomorrow. I'll let you know when we know.

Recovery!

We just saw the doctor. The surgery is over. It went very well. They actually videotaped it. Parker is in recovery right now. We hope to see him in about 30 minutes. I'll send another email later tonight. Thanks for your prayers!

We will go see the doctor again at 9am. We'll know more about the results at that time. Pray little pain and a lot of sleep for Parker until then.

In Surgery

So, they just took Parker back for surgery. It's 2:30pm. The taking away of him was horrible. He was crying, reaching for us. The sedative didn't work as well as we thought it would. :) We should get an update in about 1.5 hours, but the surgery will last about 2.5 hours. He'll then be in recovery for 45 minutes until we get to see him. So, we are hoping for around 5:30pm to see him. Thanks for your prayers. Keep praying! It's been a LONG day.

This morning was rough. It's hard to keep a 2 year old under control when he's tired and hasn't eaten. I think we'll know more about what to do to help him next month when we're back. I'm a little overwhelmed right now that we are doing this again next month.

Here are some pics from the morning...

Parker got to wear his doctor costume to the hospital.

Parker HATED the gown. So, we didn't push it.

We finally realized that there were little cars on the floor, which worked as a good bribe for the gown.

The wagon was fun too.

The sedative kicked in.

New Surgery Time

The hospital called at 5:30am to bump up our surgery time. We now have to be at the hospital at 10:30am. I don't remember what time they said the surgery will actually be. Seriously, don't remember. It was 5:30am.

It's now 6:25am. Why is it that men can fall right back asleep after hearing that a surgery on their child is sooner than planned? I obviously can't. That's why I'm playing with the blog at 6:30am.

Several people have asked me how we know that Parker can't see. Well, for instance, yesterday he was in my dad's office. My dad has this huge movie poster of Braveheart in his office. It's the one of Mel Gibson looking all...well...brave. Parker looked up at it and said, "Look! A Violin!" Dead giveaway.

So, I'm thinking the surgery is around 12:30pm or something. I'll update when I get a chance from the hospital. Thanks for praying!

The Night Before Surgery

Tonight was Parker's night. He got to pick what he wore, ate, and played. We started the evening with Monsters Inc. and popcorn. We then moved into no clothes and green pancakes for dinner. Popsicles were for dessert. Then we laid in the guest bedroom, turned off the lights, and played with flashlights until 9pm.

I told Parker today that he was going to the hospital tomorrow. This was the conversation:

Sandi: Parker, tomorrow you're going to a new place called, "The hospital." We're going to see your eye doctor there. We're all going to be wearing funny costumes and you're going to have to put something over your face. When you wake up, you'll feel a little sick, and you'll have a pirates patch on your eye. But, after a little while your eye is going to be fixed! You're going to be able to see!

Parker: Will de be fish at de pital?

Sandi: I don't know, honey. When we get there we can ask about fish. We'll go see them if they have them.

Parker: Okay, mommy. I tink is good. Okay, mommy. I so poud (proud) of you.

We got Parker a little surgeon's costume that we're going to let him wear tomorrow to the hospital. Should be interesting...

Green pancakes, no clothes

Abigail ate pancakes too

Such a guy!

This Week

This week we are gearing up for Parker's surgery. I feel kind of like a robot, checking off my list. I'm totally exhausted. I really haven't had that much to do, but every little thing seems overwhelming right now.

We will go to Egleston at noon on Thursday. The surgery is tentatively scheduled for 3pm. We probably will not be home until late Thursday night. They will patch Parker's eye immediately following the surgery. We will have to wait until we see the doctor Friday morning before we will know if Parker can see and to what extent he can see. My birthday is Friday. All I want this year is to watch them take Parker's patch off and tell me that he can see.

I'll try to update the blog throughout the day Thursday and Friday to keep everyone updated. So many of you have asked what you can do to help us right now. Thanks for even offering! Meals and phone calls would be the best. We'll be couped up in the house for awhile so that we can decrease the risk of Parker getting an infection. Please do not bring over big toys for Parker. We are overloaded from Christmas! If you want to bring him something, a balloon or something small would be fine. It's strange to think that we'll be doing all of this again in a month.

Here are some pictures from our week so far. We had to check "haircut" off the list. See why....?

The new do... much better.
My pigtail queen.

Back to the Blog World

It's been a long 3 weeks since the last post. And, our camera erased our Christmas pictures. So, I don't have any pictures, but here's an update:

Abigail:

• Abigail knew exactly what to do with Christmas presents. She squealed and squealed as she tore into her gifts on Christmas Day.
• She now waves and claps.
• She says Hey, Hi, Mama, Dada, and byebye.
• She does the "army man" crawl.
• She does that little girl high pitched squeal thing all day long. What's up with that?

Parker

• He got to ride a pony in Hilton Head last week. He wanted off the pony and looked at Eric and said, "this is serious!" That's his new favorite phrase. Everything is now serious in our house.
• He's blind as a bat. He can't see who he's talking to or the food on his plate. He calls everyone the wrong name.
• He actually gasped when he opened a present and saw that it was a soccer ball.
• Everyday he asks me if we can "go find friends" for him to play with.

Family

• Our dogs decided to go on a vacation without us for 3 days. They ran off on December 23, and were returned to us by a nice lady 2 miles away on December 26. One day I'm going to write a children's book called, "The Adventures of Rocky and Rambo."
• We went to Hilton Head Island for a week. We loved riding the bikes as a family and playing on the beach.

We are now gearing up for Parker's first surgery next week. I'm getting pretty nervous about it. I'm glad it's still a week away.