Surgery Day Part 1 - Congenital Cataract

We had found out 5 days before her surgery was scheduled that M had a congenital cataract in her right eye and that we had 2 choices: operate to remove the cataract and work to restore vision, or do not do surgery and monitor the vision in her right eye.  We knew going to that appointment that it was most likely a cataract and we knew that we would want the surgery done in hopes of having some vision for M in that eye.  We were given the best case scenario for M's vision in that eye at this appointment and it was significantly lower than we thought.  She had a dense, large, and centred cataract that was not caught early in her life, making vision recovery not as promising had it been identified and treated earlier.

Pre-surgery time sucked.  I cried all day, almost everyday, and it was negatively affecting my 3 year old son.  After 2 days of crying all day, I promised I would quit crying in front of my son E; those days I just cried in the shower, when he was napping, and after he went to bed.

This is a pre-surgery picture of M sitting in our kitchen about 6 am getting ready to head to the hospital.  She had the surgery on November 23, 2012 just before she turned 9 months old.

M had the 10:30am surgery which meant we had to be at the hospital at 8:30am.  We checked in and eventually saw a nurse to gather details about her history, her likes and dislikes, and information like whether she was breast or bottle fed.  We provided the nurses with her suther and a little blankie that she always sleeps with, hoping that she would find comfort when the time came from these familiar objects in such an unfamiliar place.

We were able to be with M just until surgery.  The surgeon, nurse, and anesthesiologist came to talk to us in a little room.  They asked us a few more questions and told us that they would be taking her to put her under and start surgery.  I had to hand her over to the nurse and watch the nurse take her out of the room.  Neither parent was allowed to be with her when they put her under because she was less than 1 year old.  

She was operated on until around 12:15pm.  The surgeon came to get my husband and I in the waiting room.  He said everything went well, and only 1 of us was allowed to see her in the recovery room.  I went in to find her being held by the anesthesiologist.  They passed her to me as soon as I got there.