So as we had planned for the Dr in AL felt as if their was a very serious possibility that her retina was detaching and he said that he could tell with the decreased pressure in her eye she was going to need surgery!  We could wait however he suggested that we do it as soon as possible, the retina DR we were seeing at Vanderbilt was out of town and had moved her out to the 15 of February, because of his vacation he could have opted to do the surgery on last Friday but I don’t know… In our opinion she wasn’t as important to him.  Not to say bad things about Vanderbilt but they are a research hospital and there were a TON of people there every time!!! he would be in and out we felt like a number and that we understand however this is our baby she is 4 and she is not 50+ like the rest of his patients and would have appreciated a little more concern on her part…..

The Dr Robert Morris in AL is the president of the World Eye Trauma Association, dealing with eye trauma all over the world.  He has restored sight in several patients whom other Drs gave no hope.  Dr Morris says in several write ups that he could have restored better sight however previous surgeries by the other Dr that didn’t know what they were doing hindered and caused more scar tissue than needed… At that we were for sure if someone was going to do a surgery it needed to be him….   Not to mention he has several “Patton’s” on actual surgeries that he invented and other drs preform.  in short, he is GOOD, real GOOD! And this is whom I felt most comfortable with.

Now when you experience greatness usually these people are very anti social, very hard to understand, over your head and just plain to good for the general public.  Well DR Morris was the complete opposite… We learned more about Anna’s eye condition in 2 hours with him than the entire month seeing the specialist at Vanderbilt.  He drew us a graph, explained what everything was and how it operated… not only that but took Anna in to his heart in less than 5 mins she was cooperating with him like we had never experienced.  WOW, factor was major!!! He had her on his lap before it was over playing “ride a horse go to town”…lol.. then as we left and said “see you in the morning for surgery” he hugged Anna up and said I am going to take care of you, this is personal to me.  That is when I cried big crocodile tears, I knew it was right at that point!!! Even if things went wrong I knew the best in the country was going to care about my baby girl all he could!!!

The next morning we get up at 445 to go to the Callahan Eye foundation in Birmingham AL where over 9 drs operate all day long on just EYE’s!!! that’s crazy huh, they preform more eye surgeries a year than any other place in America… only two other centers being in close competition, that means a lot to us as well!!!  They had a mess up with verifying our insurance the night before so we had a bit longer wait than we were suppose to but it was ok….  For the most part all of the nurses and anaesthesia was soooooooo great!! One nurse came into the room and hugged Anna up and said “Anna I am going to pray for you dear, that the Drs maybe preforming the surgery but may God guide his hands”… Another confirmation that I knew we were in the right place!!!!

the long exhausting wait begins!!! 4 hours but Dr Morris was awesome to call us 3 times to tell us what was going on! We find out the retina was detached causing the eye pressure to go down (why is that important, well without correct pressure the eye can shrivel up and dry out, majorly gross!!)  he had to remove large amounts of blood from the inside, the lens had blood caked all over it so it had to be removed so that the retina was not compromised.  he felt strongly that the knife had went from the entry point to the other side damaging some of the retina on the other side however the main part of the retina was ok and he was able to insert a silicone bubble that laid the retina back against the wall of the eye.  The macula (which is what the retina is made of) and the Optic nerve looked good he said.  See each day that the retina is detached you compromise sight the faster it gets put back the more chance you have.  This is why waiting until the 15 would have been just crazy!!!!

Dr Morris called us on his personal cell phone several times checking on her  even at 7:30 the night after the surgery… I mean really so sweet!!! I can’t even tell you how much that means to us!!!  we had to go that night to the hotel again and rest for our follow up the next morning at his office, which went good.  Dr Morris has a couple of people who fellowship with him, not residents these are drs who have graduated and already did their residency with a hospital and could go out and have a practice however they are learning under him…  They guy who come to get us in the waiting room said I will go let Dr Morris know you are here, usually I do all the follow ups but since he did the enter surgery by himself he will probably want to see you himself.  Well if you know what that means you are probably as shocked as we were!!! Not only did Dr Morris make sure she was ok he preformed the entire 3 hour surgery himself to make sure it was done correct.  The guy said yea we got to take a look into her eye after he was done and it was perfect.  That in its self made me teary eyed again!!  Kinda like looking at a master photographers work and admiring it that’s what this guy did after Dr Morris was done.   I don’t exactly know what we did to deserve this kind of treatment but I was so thankful for it!!!  So Dr Morris come in the room and examend her eye (she shook to death, so hard to take) but he was a gentle as he could be! Then said that the eye was not as swollen as he expected and that it looked good! now our goal to prevent infection with a combo drop of antibiotics and steroids 6 times a day(not so fun but Anna is being a trooper)… After all of our follow up instructions he come over and give Anna a kiss on the cheek………ok  I really hope he likes us because I don’t think I can ever go anywhere else!!!!

We come home on Wednesday , slept a lot!! its been tiring not much sleep, she has opened her eyes already !!! So we go back Monday the 15th for follow up! Just keep praying for us!! We really appreciate it!!

Sincerely ~ christina

here is her  on Thursday watching some Rainbow Brite episodes while I was editing..lol Notice Rainbow Brite has a patch as well..lol