Lexie's Turn for Surgery

 Early this summer we took Lexie to her eye doctor because a sty she had just wasn't getting better, despite our washes and warm compresses.  I expected the doctor to give us some drops to help it get better and send us on our way, but instead, he said that she didn't have a sty, but a chalazion, and would need surgery to remove it. 

A chalazion is like a sty, but a sty is just a build up of fluid that eventually drains on its own.  A chalazion develops in a similar way (Lexie apparently is prone to developing microscopic dandruff on her eyelashes), but a chalazion is a build up of puss instead of clear fluid and it won't go away with it being lanced and drained out.  She had to be able to keep her eye dry for a week after surgery so with swimming lessons and two summer vacations with lots of swimming planned, we had to post-pone surgery until August.

Lexie with her swollen left eyelid from the chalazion.

Lexie was super brave about having surgery.  But at first, she thought her surgery would be like Annie's spinal fusion.  She wanted to make sure that everyone would come visit her in the hospital and that we would decorate her hospital room.  Having a big sister like she does, that's the only experience with "surgery" that she has!

When we got to the hospital, a lot of people were surprised that I was there with a different patient, and they all asked about Annie.  Lexie was a pro at everything and did great through her short procedure!

Before surgery--she got her arm band, and her puppy Lucy got one too!  Lucy chose the bubble gum gas to go to sleep with, but Lexie chose strawberry.  She later said that Lucy made the better choice.

After surgery she did great!  She was happy to have earned her OWN hospital teddy bear.  (Annie's collection has outgrown her closet!)

Lexie had the eye patch on for just a few hours and then we took it off.  The doctor actually found 3 chalazions--one was removed from the outside of her lid (you can see the incision in the picture) and two were removed from the inside of her eyelid.  Now we need to make sure we are extra diligent with eye washes from now on to prevent this from happening again.  However, on a side note, since I'm so behind at typing up this post... we just recently discovered a lump on her eyelid that was there before surgery that we think the doctor must have missed.  We'll be taking her in soon to have it checked out, but we're suspecting that she'll need more surgery.