Surgery is scheduled

The doctor had originally told me that we'd do surgery when she's around a year old but he's bumped it up. He said that she will be safe with the anesthesia that they are going to give her and he's completely comfortable with doing the surgery when she's 8 months old. He said that the surgery that she will need is very simple compared to a lot of the surgeries he has performed to correct crossed eyes, or "strabismus", which is the technical term for what she has.

He said there's a pretty good chance that she'll have to have another surgery at some point in her life but he said "the younger, the better".

The surgery is scheduled for April 1st (April Fools Day!). I tried to schedule it for a later date because to me, that just didn't seem like a good day to do the surgery. The next date available wasn't until May and I didn't want to put it off that long, since he had recommended doing it in April. So, I'm hoping it will be a good day for the West family. We don't know exactly what time the surgery will be yet, it depends on how many other kids are having surgery and how old they are. They schedule the surgeries from youngest to oldest and the nurse at the doctor's office said that we're most likely going to be the first or second appointment of the day. That means that we're going to have to be there anywhere from 4-6am. On a Tuesday. That's the only day of the week that he does surgeries. Why the heck would you do them on a Tuesday? Why not a Friday and then we'd be able to be home with her all weekend. That would make sense though, right?

In the meantime, he wants us to put a patch over her left eye for an hour a day, to attempt to strengthen her right eye. From what I understand, they're like big stickers that will cover her eye. We ARE NOT looking forward to taking those off everyday!!

I am going to get some patches tomorrow on my lunch and we're going to start them tomorrow night. She's had an exhausting day, it's 6:15 and she's already asleep.

Her next follow up/pre-surgical appointment is on March 17th (St. Patrick's Day!).

* UPDATE * A few people have asked questions so I thought I'd post them on here as well...

Q: Will the surgery just be on her right eye, or both?
A: It will be on both eyes, because they both cross but the right is just a lot more obvious than the left.

Q: Why did they move up the surgery, I thought she was going to have it when she was a year old?
A: He said "the sooner, the better". There's a chance that she might be seeing double right now and he would like her to be able to see normally ASAP. I still think that the reason that she always holds her hand in front of her and looks at it is because she's trying to focus. When I was 10, I had an accident that caused me to see double for a few minutes and I remember holding my arm in front of me so that I could try to focus on it. I'm convinced that's why she does it.

Q: Are you scared?!
A: Um, HELL YES. We know it's the best thing for her though. Honestly, I don't think it's really sunk in yet. He's told us for the last two months that she was going to need surgery but that was supposed to be six months from now. I keep thinking "It's an outpatient procedure, it's not a big deal". She's our little girl, our Baby Brynn, nothing is supposed to happen to her. It makes me sad that she is only 6 months old and we're planning a surgery. It's scary but she's a tough little girl and we know that she'll be ok. She has to be, that's all there is to it!! We love you baby girl!!