LANEY'S SURGERY

Matt & I got up super early and once again relied our our great friend Angela to take care of the big girls' getting to school. When Matt pulled Laney out of her bed she was so sweet, and she asked "Where are you taking me, Daddy? What are you going to do with me?"

I think after the initial tainting against medicine (following her biopsy at Shriner's last year), Laney's wide exposure to Dr.s has become a good thing -- she actually had a lot of fun getting ready for surgery!

This was after the purple happy drink...

...Can you tell??

Laney forgot she had sisters, counted nine fingers on Daddy's hand, and said "Joseph" (the guy with the colorful coat!) would be overseeing her care that day ;)

After the hours of screaming and fighting (she's still hoarse!), we had some moments of calm. Poor baby was exhausted but kept waking ballistic...

We had to break out the "ba-ba" again... Thankfully, we had this and her beloved blankie to fall back on.

She vehemently refused the sunglasses I took, so the nurse gave her these super sporty shades

We "watched" a whole movie before she finally fell asleep, but then she got a good couple of hours of rest. That first day I didn't leave her side unless Matt relieved me. We were afraid she'd fall off the couch in her altered state or rub her eyes and pop the stitches. It was stressful, but pretty nice to spend the time with her.

I think Daddy enjoyed it some, too ;)

Laney's doing well today. Her eyes are much less red & she is healing well.

We put up our Christmas tree & made snowflakes to decorate it. Yesterday Laney got to pick out a couple of ornaments at Walgreens. That was fun for her.

We are still trying hard to protect her from herself. She doesn't make the connection between running/ jumping and hurting her eyes. She also can't see too well to avoid walking into things. We're super cautious on the stairs, but last night she took every opportunity to pop her shades on to go get water, etc. and visit ;)

Her eyes sometimes turn outward now, but this is normal for the first couple of weeks and we won't know if the surgery has remedied the problem for about a month. As she grows she could require another surgery/ successive surgeries.

Today when we went out to get milk everyone we saw told her she looked like a movie star... this helps keep morale up concerning wearing her shades ;)

Her little tears are still a tad pink, but much less drastic than the red ones the other day!

She has been a little crabby, but mostly very sweet

She generally only cries or fusses when the eye drops and the "sleeper hold" come out!

Today we went out for milk, read some books, watched a movie & pretended to call Grammy :)

...We even started using our lamps last night (progressing from candlelight!)
I'm just glad this sweet girly is still smiling :)

Emma took this one before the Thompsons got here :) Don't we look happy in our anticipation?? Actually, she was taking it because I got my hair cut for Locks of Love FINALLY. I'll post the severl-pound braid later ;)
Our little Indian Princess was thrilled to have her buddy Grant around. He, on the other hand, isn't looking too thrilled. He wasn't feeling quite up to speed, but he sure came around. They spent countless hours in the ladies lounge (since no one else was really around), playing the day away and breaking only for food!
Laney could have help Garrison all weekend. We got to enjoy his squeaks and smiles! And she was already donning one of her gorgeous hand me downs from Meri. Thanks, Donna!

These two were so cute! Look at him holding her little hand... Little G reminds me of Garrett, always wearing just one sock!
We were blessed with snow for Thanksgiving. We convinced Shana to go sledding in the dark -- what a blast! She was a madlady on those hills ;)


We sure missed our families and friends at home, but we were so thankful for a terrific Thanksgiving with some of the best friends we could hope for!

Hey guys! It's been a long couple of days, but Laney is doing great! She struts around in her little Huey Lewis & the News style glasses and I have to keep my thumb on her just to keep her from running and jumping! She's still a little out of it, but it is so encouraging that she at least seems like herself and a normal, healthy little girl today :) Her energy level may have something to do with the box of NERDS I bought her... Yes, I bought my child candy!! (I think this is the first time ever I have actually purchased candy for my child, unless you count the times on vacation or our Philippines trip when I bought foreign goodies for the novelty...) I figure when you go under the knife you deserve a little treat ;)

The doctor said the surgery itself went really smoothly. I started to get a little nervous when it went a little long, but she successfully rotated the eyes, cut the muscles (detaching them completely), and reattached them. Laney was sweet as pie going into it, really funny after she drank the happy juice, and then completely ballistic for about 2 hours after the surgery. It was pretty rough for a while, since I could barely hold her body, let alone her appendages. She was fighting to rip out her IV's, tear off the splints on her arms (to keep her from scratching her eyes), etc. She even refused popsicles! She was screaming and straining so hard I worried she'd pop her stitches, but then she threw up a few times and was generally calm for the rest of the day. (Save whwen we tried to put her splints on for rest --we decided it was easier just to stay within reach of her at all times! -- or put in her eye drops...)

We had candlelit dinner of soup and then watched a movie together in our pretend rocket ship (the couch & loveseat scooted together). The Hestons were so sweet to bring by cookies and a balloon. She was too out of it to notice at the time, but she is enjoying them now ;)

The hardest thing now is keeping the little gal from running, jumping, or generally being a 2 year old! She's done great keeping her shades on, and the post-op visit went really smoothly. Her eyes are tracking together. As long as she doesn't exert herself or bump her head (both of which could pop the stitches), there shouldn't be any complications. Praise the Lord!

I will post pictures later this evening, hopefully ;) Sorry to those of you who have been missing pics lately ;)

Laney is having eye surgery tomorrow, the 27th, at Surgicenter of Greater Milwaukee. It is affiliated with Children's Hospital and we really like her Dr., but we are praying 1) That this surgery fixes the problem so she doesn't require successive surgeries and 2) Obviously, that her eyes don't hemorrhage, as there is a slim chance she could go blind. Chloe asked me a lot of questions tonight, and when I explained the procedure she was really unsettled. "But Mommy, that will hurt so bad!" she said. I'm bracing myself for when she sees the bloody tears...

Laney has done a great job patching, and it has improved a lot, but not enough to correct it. To have any hope of preserving her vision in the right eye, the surgery is necessary. The problem is that the muscled connected the eyes to the sockets are malformed and/ or misplaced, so the Dr. will go in and cut those muscles to stretch and reform them in the hopes that the eyes will straighten and start working together.

Obviously, she will be put under. As long as there are no complications, it will be strictly outpatient. She will have double vision, nausea, pain, itching, etc., for several days as well as being in double arm splints to keep her from scratching at the eyes. (The stitches leave that foreign-object-in-the-eye sensation). So needless to say, all of these things will probably add up to a very cranky little girl. Since she cannot be around bright lights for a week or two, we'll pretty much be holing up in our room with our lamps on, which I'm praying doesn't mean a really cranky Mommy! I am hoping to be able to soothe her and actually make the recovery time enjoyable, as I can (hopefully) listen to my classes while I do other things and be able to take the time to read to her and do things we normally don't have time for.

Honestly, I am not scared about the surgery itself. I am aware that some pretty terrible things could happen, but I also believe that God is big enough to get us through them. I just hope we can make the most of this time and I can soothe her as needed.

I have been pretty stressed out lately with various concerns, constantly needing to remind myself to trust Him and push on with what really matters, but I have been so encouraged by our great time with the Thompsons, as well as with the way several of you have reached out, mailed us letters, and taken care of some of our practical needs in the past couple of weeks. THANK YOU! I can't describe how important that has been!

Thanks for caring about us and supporting us as we pursue Him!

Erin

Our Sweet Little Raggedy Ann... This was handed down from cousin Hannah and we all absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, this picture doesn't show the super cool socks ;) We had so much fun with Mia here to go to the church festival with us and then we got together with friends and had the chance to dress up again!

This was "Pilgrim and Indian Night" at AWANA. Luckily, we had Chlo's old Indian costume in the dress up box & I was able to pull together a Pilgrim suit in a pinch. They were so cute together, and Emmy was especially proud of her "Very fwagile" beaded dress!

We were persuaded to go to the NTBI carnival, thanks to Angela! We had a great time. It's basically a conglomeration of whatever people are willing to do/ sell/ auction/ make into a game. This year we had sumo wrestling suits. Angela and I went down and played in them before the event actually started -- it was hilarious; wish I had pictures! Summer and Em were the proud recipients of some high skilled face painting... And the girls all loved Skeeter the clown, who is actually one of our classmates that makes the best balloon animals I've ever seen! The "Win a goldfish" booth is always popular --all of our girls actually won and the fish were refused, but Bob and Linda were so nice that the girls gladly accepted the 6 that were left at the end of the night ;) They live in our neighbor Tamara's bowl now...

I know it's been forever since I posted, but our internet is out & things have been pretty crazy!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We sure did. It was sad not to be able to go home and we missed our family, but we were so thankful to have great friends (The Thompsons) come visit us. We had a blast, from the adults in the group (who sledded in the dark the night before Thanksgiving and got a little too into BOGGLE and pie) to little Garrison, who got no shortage of love from the girls ;) Grant and the girls had a great time making forts and playing house in the Ladies Lounge :)

We went to Chloe's school performance and just generally had a great time finally having a break! We are sure looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible over Christmas, though!


Love you all!

Erin