Surgery is over

We are currently sitting in our hospital room. Gracie finally went for surgery at 2:10PM. At 2:30PM we got a call from the operating room saying that they had examined the eyes and were about to proceed with the enucleation. At about 4:50PM Dr. G came and spoke with us. He told us that the surgery went very well. There was some difficulty underneath and on the medial side of the eye because of the scarring. However, he took his time and everything went well. 8-10mm of the optic nerve were taken and an adult implant was used (size 20). This was important as the implant is suppose to last her whole life and having an adult-sized implant will help ensure the eye appears appropriately sized in her adult life.

Everything seems to have gone exceptionally well. It was still difficult to send her back into surgery and to have everything done. It was nice to know that so many people cared for her. We had several nurses speak to us that had cared for Gracie. One in particular came and told us how it had broke his heart when he heard that Gracie was coming in for "the procedure." He told us that she was such a sweetheart and how much they loved her. (In fact, he actually said- we love Gracie.) He came and gave her a big hug and then the nurse that took Gracie back whispered to Stephanie, "I really don't want to do this." It is true we really did not want to see the eye go but everyone knew we were working to get rid of cancer!

The patch on her eye is extremely large and she is not liking it very much. She wants to get rid of it all the time. We are trying to stop her from picking at it. The patch will be removed before we leave Houston (next Wednesday, Thursday or Friday). The eye lid is stitched shut and those stitches will be removed in a couple weeks. We will return for a consult and another EUA in 3 to 5 weeks. In that exam we will monitor the left eye for new growth and look at the right eye socket and implant to see how it is healing.

We are grateful for the support and love from the medical staff here. We are also accutely aware of the many prayers and love that have come from family and friends. It has and continues to lift and comfort us.