The day I prayed would never come

Since 2008, we have struggled with correcting Jacob's vision.  I noticed around the time he was 2 from time to time he would cross his eye during meals or coloring.  I finally let my mother's intuition lead me to call our pediatrician. He didn't seem to worry but suggested we go on to a Pediatric Ophthalmologist. 

We went to the referral and the doctor seemed ok with his vision as well but wanted to get an MRI so we could ensure there wasn't anything causing it like a tumor, etc. When we went to the MRI, I was pregnant with Madison and having a 2 year old going through something I could not participate in was heart  wrenching.  The biggest mistake we made is letting the nurse suggest not sedating him because he was doing so well.  Looking back, we should have sedated him so that he would not have been traumatized by being held down.  Some of the struggles we have at medical appointments to this day can probably be traced back to then. We changed doctors shortly after that because when they called me with the results, they asked that we immediately bring Jacob in because we had to discuss surgery within a week!  Once we got to the doctor with Jacob, they did a "uh oh" this isn't the right kid.  Ok so "Uh Oh" isn't good enough when we are talking about my child. 

We left that day and that's when Dr.Goei was brought in to our lives.  She has been very patient and has exhausted all the treatment options.  We have had a good run of treatments like patching and drops and at one point she even took surgery off the table.  However, over the last 3 months I noticed he began struggling more and more even when his glasses were on. I can't tell you how many hours I have spent praying about this.  When she told us at our last appointment that she would be doing Jacob a disservice not to do the surgery and if it were her child she would be doing it, I was a peace with the decision though every part of my being prayed for some way not to put him through this. 

Today we went in for his surgery and I have to say that MCG is an excellent Children's Hospital. They even gave us a DVD the night before to watch to set the expectation for Jacob.  I think it probably eased our minds more than Jacob's.  I know the hardest thing I had to do was walk out of the room before he was wheeled to the operating room, it took all I could not to grab on to my baby and run out of there but I was thankful that when we made it to the waiting room my parents and Mark's parents were there. As my dad said "Jacob will be fine, it's you we are here for".  He was right.  Jacob has been a trooper. We have had some hiccups throughout the day and I think he was in a little more pain than we both thought he was going to be in but I can tell you he learned how to page me and it would get a response. 

I made Chicken Noodle Soup and Monkey Bread for dinner tonight.  The kids are taking their baths and it seems like, for now, all is right in the world except for one thing. We asked my dad before he left if he got his soap out of the shower...he said yes.  The soap is there....so what did he take from the shower?  If it's my favorite shampoo someone is getting back in car and bringing it back! I'm just saying!  For those of you curious, here is a pretty good article about what Jacob's condition entails
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001999

Here's a pic of him when we first got back to the room this morning......

As PaPa says..."Do you see the look of concern on my face?" ha!