Ameena’s Eye Injury – Continued

September 10, 2010

In all of my explaining, I forgot to tell you how Ameena actually cut her eye. Though no one else actually saw it happen, we were able to imagine and she confirmed. On the way to the hospital I was sitting in the back of the van with her (the other kids were dropped off to our good friends Jarrod and AJ). When I asked her what happened with the knife, she said she was trying to open a bag of cereal. And, then I’m sure you can imagine as I did, that she was tugging on the knife trying to get the bag to open and it popped up and hit her in the eye. No, the knife was not sticking out of her eye when we found her (as was the story we got from one of the residents). No, blood was not gushing everywhere (according to the surgeon, there are actually no blood vessels in the cornea). And, no, we will probably not be getting “Parent of the Year” award.

I made sure to tell Ameena in front of the other kids before we dropped them off, that this was not her fault, that it was just an accident. But, in the future, it is very important that you all use one of the 6 available round-ended scissors, in the drawer that you can reach without climbing on the counter, as opposed to the sharp steak knives. Agreed.

She was amazingly brave on the drive over and the entire time we were in the hospital. We arrived at TCH around 11a and Ameena was thrilled to have a wagon ride into the building. The day was filled with firsts and tons of decisions to make along the way. We were informed around 2p that surgery was scheduled for 3p, but everything runs a little slow on a Sunday. So, we got to watch Tinkerbell while we waited. I started to prepare her in little increments for what was about to take place. There will be a little poke and a tube they put in your arm to give you fluids since you can’t eat or drink. And a little while later, I explained that in order to fix her eye, they would give her medicine to make her sleep. “WHY!? I don’t want to sleep!”

When Ameena got her IV, there was no crying, not even a peep. We went upstairs around 3:30p to the OR waiting room, where we met the surgeon, Dr. Pantcheva, and resident, Dr. Wong, and the anesthesiologist. This is when we heard the most difficult news to that point. The surgeon was very nice and explained the exploratory procedure would take 1-2 hours. Then she said, “Our goal is to close the eye. And, as hard as it is for me to say, we are not focused on her vision today. Today, we are focused on saving her eye. If you ask me, will she see, I can not tell you. We’ll have to wait until after she has healed.”

We ended up waiting awhile longer and so our visit from Deb and Mallory was perfect. They brought coloring books, puzzles, and books and it really helped pass the remaining time. But, I have to say, after hearing the news above, and seeing my good friend walk into the room, it was all I could do not to break down and sob.

Ameena became very nauseous when they ran the iv antibiotics so they brought in a bed and we got her in her cute little purple gown. Around 4p the team came in to give her medicine to sedate her, as we didn’t want her to panic when they wheeled her away from us. Caleb asked them to give us a minute and we both hugged her and told her how much we love her and that we would be right here waiting when she woke up. I will never forget when they started to wheel her out of the room, and she lifted her little head to turn and make sure we were waiting there for her.  I let out one of those mommy gasps and had to cover my mouth so I wouldn’t upset her with the sobbing that ensued once she was out of the room.

Around 4:45p the OR tech called to say that Ameena had been resting comfortably for about 30 minutes, her vitals were stable, and that as she went to sleep they talked about ponies and princesses.

We got a call once an hour for a total of 5 hours. Each one telling us that Ameena’s vitals were stable. On the 4th hour, Caleb asked the tech, “What are they doing in there?!” To which she responded, “Um….surgery?” He said, “OK, just working away.” We both started laughing and he apologized. (We were getting a little punchy at this point.) She said she’d call back in another hour if they weren’t out by then.   With each hour that passed without a conclusion, we began to create out own.  At one point, Caleb began to entertain the idea of a glass eye!  To this I responded by smacking him in the arm.

It was right about this time that my sister-in-law Gretchen sent me a text, and the timing was perfect.  She said that she just wanted to remind us that this wasn’t our fault.  Things like this happen all the time and she sees them as an ER doc.   Parents like us need to be reminded as the long hours of surgery continue on.

And of course, I had a little internal battle going on already.

This could have been avoided……

If only……..

A little after 9p we finally saw our tired (pregnant surgeon’s face (who we later learned is named Mina, pronounced just like Ameena). Deb had just returned and my mom and step dad were with us.

She began to explain that they were successful in closing the eye. The difficulty came due to the shape of the cut. Though it was clean, it was not straight. She drew us a picture that looked something like a constellation and explained that each time she put in a stitch, this would cause a gap across from it. Then she would have to put in another stitch to close that gap. So, most of their time was spent playing with the tension. She was very thorough and somewhat positive. They put in 5 stitches and then covered it with glue. Yes, I said GLUE!

It was only about 20 minutes before they called us back to see Ameena, as she was stirring. I was so relieved to see her face and thrilled that she was awake (this was one of my biggest fears, that she wouldn’t wake up). She was groggy but knew who we were right away and asked for water. They moved us to a room in no time and we began our night of recovery.

Mom and Richard headed home. Deb stayed and our sister Brigitte came and met us in Ameena’s room. When Caleb had to leave to take our other kiddos home for the night, my girlfriends were so sweet and comforting. They brought snacks and tea, and stayed to chat with me and help me talk to the staff, until 1A! Truly I am blessed.

Ameena vomited around midnight which is 1 of the main things they didn’t want her to do, as to avoid any more trauma to her eye. So, we had numerous conversations throughout the night about what was causing it and how to keep it from happening again. We finally got her pain management down and she was able to rest more comfortably in the early hours of the morning.

The kids were so cute when they came to visit in the morning and Ameena’s heart lifted as soon as they came into the room with flowers and a balloon. Unfortunately, they had to witness Ameena’s trauma when the resident came in to remove her patch and tape for the team to look at her eye. The tape was so sticky that it was very difficult to remove, and it actually caused an additional abrasion on the surface of her eye, which was very painful for Ameena. I had to have my mom take the kids out of the room, and Acacia left in tears when she had to leave her sister’s side. The surgeon said that except for the new abrasion, the stitches all looked good. She put in some eye drops and antibiotic ointment and said that she would fill out the discharge paperwork. This was around 2p.

We spent the next hour trying to get Ameena comfortable. She just kept telling me that she didn’t want to be there and she just wanted to go home. She had finally had enough and didn’t want anyone else touching her. I climbed in bed and held her against me, and she finally fell asleep. So, we decided to stay and asked our nurse (aka Princess Leta, with her beautiful long blonde hair, sweet voice, and the best nurse we’ve ever met) to keep interruptions to a minimum. Around 5p, after quite a debate with the Med team resident over whether or not we were comfortable and capable enough to put eye drops and ointment in our daughter’s eye, we were released to go home without causing anymore trauma for Ameena in the hospital. As things go in the hospital, we finally made it out the door around 6p. She was a completely different kid as soon as we hit the elevators, elated to be on her way home. I imagined her daddy wearing a big S on his shirt as he carried her out of the hospital.

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