Info on Collin-Pt. 2

Collin with Mommy on Tube Surgery Day-4/28/11 (they had to mark which eye would be having surgery, hence the "X")

Daddy with Collin on Tube Surgery Day-4/28/11


Well, it has been a crazy couple of months here in the Pavlenko household (more on that later), so this blog post is a long time coming. But the great thing about that is that now you'll have the FULL story. So here we go...

So exactly a month after our post op visit with Dr. Oster, on March 15, I took the day off of work and brought Collin (and Ethan and Mom) to visit with Dr. P. Her office is located in this brand new medical building in Maple Grove, which is beautiful and quite busy. I was sad that I was missing Underwater World (or Sea Life Aquarium as it is now known), but I knew/hoped that my students would be good for the sub and the parent volunteers. We got to the Arbor Lakes Medical Building and checked in. While there, you could totally tell that Dr. P. is one of the best at what she does. Busy, busy! The waiting room was set up really nicely-there was a little area behind the giant fish tank with toys, chairs, books, and a TV/DVD player. We sat back there. Ethan was entertained by the fish (and later, by a little girl in the waiting room) and Collin...he was just typical Collin-walking everywhere, into everything, etc. While waiting, I stopped feeling sorry for myself and my child. I saw children (and adults) there with much bigger challenges-challenges I was now grateful we didn't face. There were young people with large hemangiomas that were threatening their eyesight, children with severe vision problems, or in the case of the little girl and her family sitting in the waiting room with us-her brothers eyeball kept rolling off to the side. He had corrective surgery once before, but somehow, his vision was still impaired. An assistant called us back. Mom and Ethan stayed out in the waiting room while Collin and I went back.

The assistant checked Collin over how a nurse would typically check over a child at the doctor's office before the doc came in. He checked Collin's eyes with a light, focus through putting on a movie far away, and his vision by showing him cards with lines on them (the lines got more narrow as we went). The assistant told us to wait and that Dr. P. would be in shortly.

Dr. P. came in and you could tell she loved what she was doing. She had a very warm demeanor, very similar to Dr. Oster, only even more child friendly. "How's Mr. Collin today?" she asked. She looked over his chart, looked at what her assistant did, and did some more vision assessments as well. After her assessments, she came to 2 conclusions: #1-Collin has astigmatism and will need glasses (at around age 9, she guesses), and #2-Collin would most definitely have to have a stint put in to have his tear duct working properly.

She explained that the procedure would take around the same amount of time as the probing, but that rather than probing the tear duct, she would stick a little flexible tube into the tear duct opening. The tears would run around the tube (the tube was not hollow) until extraction about 3 months later. The opening would then stay open due to the forced pressure from the tube. There were the same amount of risk involved (virually none) and little side effects (worst being a little blood stained tears/nose goo right after surgery and continued tearing until the tube was extracted). Surgery would take place at Children's West in Minnetonka, would be performed by her and an anesthesiologist with follow up 3 months after surgery to remove the tube. I told her thank you and then she sent us to the office to schedule surgery.

Being a teacher who DOES NOT like to get ready for a sub (it's more work than just being there), I was trying to get Collin's surgery scheduled for one of two times. There was the first week in April (our official Spring Break) or later in April (for our Th, F, M Easter Break). I went in and asked the scheduler for the first available date. "Our first available date is April 28th at 8am." What? Seriously? "That's in a month and a half," I told her. "I know, I'm sorry, but Dr. P. only does surgeries Wed. and Thurs. and we like young children to be some of the first of the day. Would you like that time? I can call you if there are any cancellations." I pondered it, but thought, what other choice do I have? I took it and told her to keep me posted for any cancels/reschedules (there were none).

After leaving Ethan with Mom and Dad the night before, Mark, I, and Collin headed down to Minnetonka early the morning of April 28th. We got there and I realized why Children's Hospital is the leading care provider for children-everything inside was so child-friendly. There were large zoo animals for Collin to look at, lots of paintings, and of course, toys to play with. My absolute favorite was in the surgery waiting room-there was a light to read x-rays, complete with x-rays of Buzz Lightyear and Woody from "Toy Story". We waited for a bit and were called back shortly thereafter. We got Collin dressed (in his girly pajamas-purple is not a good color for him). Dr. P. came and said hello and told us what would be happening. She also told us that the anesthesiologist would be coming by to see if we would like to go in and sit with Collin while he was being put under. Mark and I talked about it and were pretty sure (due to it being a new place and not going the first time) that we were going to go. Dr. Stene, the anesthesiologist, came and asked us what we would like to do. I again asked him the same questions I asked in Buffalo-"What is the percentage of people that do/don't?" He told me 80/20. "80% DON'T go back?" "No," he said. "80% DO. A lot of times at a general hospital, they give the child the general anesthesia as well as a sedative, so they go under more easily, but it also takes them longer to come out of it and they are more groggy when they do. We don't do that here. It is ultimately your decision, but a lot of times, it helps keep the child more calm as they are going under." We decided to go back and sit with Collin.

We got back in the anesthesia room and Dr. Stene asked us if Collin would like a flavor for his medicine. They could do strawberry, grape, bubble gum, or orange. Mark said strawberry. Dr. Stene then proceeded to pull out a tube of Lip Smacker (yep, Bonne Bell Lip Smacker-approximately $1.00 retail value) and rub it on the inside of the mask. I shook my head and laughed, thinking about how much that tube of Lip Smacker will cost me on my bill (I looked later-no extra charge). Mark held Collin while I rubbed his head and hand. Dr. Stene put the mask on and in a matter of seconds, Collin was out and ready for surgery. Mark and I went to the family waiting area and sat. We watched the TV monitors post when Collin was in/out of/recovering from surgery. They finally called us back about an hour later. Collin was sitting there, trying to pull his IV out. He seemed happy, and everything seemed to move along more swiftly than Buffalo. We sat for a bit before getting the okay to make the trek home.

Almost immediately, we could tell a difference in Collin's eye. Just as before (with the left eye), it was clear, tearing normally, tears spilling out properly, not goopy or mattery. What a relief! The only glitch we ran into was that we think Collin caught a viral exanthem (rash) while there, which didn't show up until about a week later. It spread so quickly and was so uncomfortable for him that we brought him into the ER to have him checked out. They gave him some meds and he was over it in a few days.

So that brings us to more recently. Finally, at the end of July, Collin reached his 3 months of having the tube in. We called Dr. P's office and scheduled an appointment to have the tube extracted. Once again, we drove down to Maple Grove (this time, my dad came with us, so it was Mom, Dad, myself, Ethan, and Collin). We checked in and played in the same play area. Collin and I went back a short time later so the assistants could check him over again. He was a little more squirrelly this time (I suppose being 3 months older will do that). They wanted to check his individual eye strength, so they patched one eye while checking over the other, and vice versa. Collin DID NOT like wearing an eye patch (don't think we'll see that one pretending to be a pirate any time soon). Then Dr. P. came in. She looked at his eye and told me how great it looked and then had me hold Collin very still so she could extract the tube (they don't sedate them to remove the tube). She pulled out an inch piece of what looked like a very thin spaghetti noodle (I still have it if anyone wants to see the real deal). She said that we should continue coming every 2 years or so to have Collin's eye checked, but other than that, we were good to go! We left, feeling relieved. We were all healthy! A one year journey, thankfully over.