Our Brave Little Man

Titus' eye surgery went great today. We arrived at 6 am went straight to registration and then to Radiology. We filled out paperwork, met the nurses and anesthesiologist, and talked through what all would take place. Here Titus is in the Radiology Waiting area. Titus was sooo good the entire time. He sat patiently on Vernon's lap as they checked his vitals and got to know him a bit. Normally if Titus is nervous he talks your ear off. He chatters about everything trying to derail you from what is actually suppose to be taking place. But he was calm and collected. He sometimes wouldn't speak when they asked questions but mostly he did great. Once Dr. Packwood came in Titus smiled and began to be way more at ease...finally a face he recognized. Vernon decided (to my amazement) that he wanted to be the one who stayed with Titus while they gave him the sleeping gas. So I kissed Titus and left and went to the waiting area where my sweet friends Janelle and Melissa waited. They were so sweet to come! It really helped me that they were there. The time passed so much faster.
Once Titus was asleep, they made Vernon leave and they took Titus for his MRI. Once the MRI was done they moved him up to Surgery. We decided to get Starbucks and go wait in the Surgery waiting room because they would come talk to us there right after they work on him. Janelle, Melissa, Vernon and I got our coffee and headed up to the waiting room. While we were there Allison came to stay with us and our pastor, John, came too. This was such a blessing.
After about 2 hours of waiting Dr. Packwood came out and told us Titus did great and everything was going well. Then about 20 mins later they called us back to see him. This is what he looked like...

What a brave little guy! They had splints on his arms so he wouldn't rub his eyes and as soon as they brought him to consciousness he asked when he could take them off. So they took that opportunity to tell him how important it was to NOT TOUCH his eye...no matter what. Whatever they told him has worked because he keeps reminding me that he is not allowed to touch his eyes. They gave him a Popsicle and he didn't really want it. Titus LOVES Popsicles so I knew he was feeling bad at this point. He kept telling us his eye hurt and burned. He said that it was blurry and that there were two of everything. So we asked the nurse if that was normal and she assured us that he was doing great. She did, however, give him more pain medicine and that seemed to really help him. He then took a big glass of Gatorade and was ready to go home. They took his IV out and told us all the thing we would need to do at home and set up our follow up appointment. Then the brought in the wagon that all the kids get to ride in as they are discharged. It was so fun for Titus! He couldn't really express it so the pictures don't do justice to his delight but he was so glad to be going home and to be pulled in the wagon.
As we waited at the door for Vernon to get the car, the clowns came and made Titus laugh. They gave him a stuffed animal and a hot wheels car...he was more than thrilled! He was so tired but mustered up the strength to tell Vernon about the clowns during our drive home. Here is a picture of us getting him in the car. He was so out of it.

Once we arrived home we took him upstairs where my mom had set up the bean bag and the little TV/DVD player. It was his own little space. Mom got him "The Tale of Despereau" DVD and some activity/sticker books. She had them waiting for him to open on the bean bag. We kept it dark up there because he kept saying everything was too bright. Robin brought Titus a huge Optimus Prime balloon and he had it right next to him all afternoon.
The nurses warned us when we left that as all the meds wore off he would probably be cranky and moody. Boy was that true. I have to rub medicine on his eyelid four times a day and the two times I did it this evening he had a full on meltdown. It was just awful. He is so scared of the medicine, it burns and it blurs his vision for a bit. I have had to fully restrain him to apply it both times. If you are one who is praying for us, please add this to your prayer list...that he would allow me to apply the medicine and not have to be restrained. It is so sad. He is just so scared. We have had a lot of talks about how some times obedience hurts but in the end its the best thing for you. So hopefully obedience in being still for the medicine application will come sooner than later!
Tonight I laid in bed with him and we talked for a while. He told me what he was scared of and why he doesn't like the medicine and how he thought today was cool because his eye would work better. It was a sweet end to a long day.

We also got the call that his MRI was normal! AMEN! Thanks to all who have come on this journey with us. He has about 10 more days of recovery but the hard part is behind us. It will be a good 3 weeks before they will be able to tell if the eyelid lift worked or not...but most likely it did.

Thanks again. To God be the Glory for He has done great things for us and we are filled with Joy!

Titus' Eye Surgery

Tomorrow morning at 6am we will arrive at Cooks Children's Hospital in Fort Worth for Titus to have an MRI and Surgery on his Left eye. Since birth Titus' left eye lid has been significantly lower than his right. When he was born he couldn't even open it. They told us it was because of the way he laid in my womb and that he may or may not grow out of it. Last year we decided to take him to the opthamologist because my pediatrician expressed concern about his vision being effected. We put it off at first because he was showing no signs of choosing one eye over the other. As he got older I began to notice that people would mention it in front of him, other children would ask him what was wrong with his eye etc. He had NO clue it was any different than anyone else. One of Vernon's Step-Mom's friend had a son who had a brain tumor that started with a droopy eye and headaches and quickly progressed to full cancer and then ended in death. He was the same age as Titus. When this came about, I made the appointment. He has had NO signs of headaches, so I've had no concern that this is the case for Titus, but people bringing it up to him combined with the knowledge that a drooping eyelid is a sign of brain tumors in children prompted me to finally make the call. We went to the doctor, he examined Titus and found NO suspicion of anything beyond what they originally told me. When he was in my womb his eyelid was closed longer than the other resulting in a elongated muscle. He DOES NOT have a lazy eye or any tracking issues. Also he told us that he has great vision and no signs of choosing his right over his left.
With all this info we were left to make a decision. The Doc said that over time it will only get worse because of gravity. He also told us that it could begin to affect him a lot more when he starts reading. Dr. Packwood also told us that after the age of 7 this particular type of surgery becomes much more intricate and would be an overnighter in the hospital. With all this info we decided to go ahead and get it done now so that no eye muscles are damaged or get into any habits that we would then have to do therapy to break.

We had it scheduled for the end of last year, but could not afford it. Through Christmas we received some money from some sweet friends and family members that put us on the path of being able to aford it. We then made a new appointment, got better insurance and are set for Tuesday May 26th...tomorrow.

We just told Titus last night. He took the news pretty well. He was mostly worried about getting any shots. He quickly told me that as long as he didn't have to get any "vaccines" than he was okay. I told him about the IV and he said that would be better than shots...we will let him think that for now;)

We will arrive tomorrow at 6am he will have an MRI to insure nothing is causing the eye to droop than he will have the surgery at 8am. It is a 1-2hour surgery with a 3-4hr recovery. Then we will get to take him home for the rest of his recovery. They said it will be pretty painless once he is sent home. He will only be on Tylenol.

We greatly appreciate your prayers tomorrow as he is going into surgery! Thank you in advance! We will keep our FB statuses updated and our twitter...if we can and if you are interested.