Everett's Surgery

As I said in the last post, Everett needed surgery for his eyes. We had the surgery today and it went really well. My parents picked us up at 5:30 this morning and we went to the Outpatient Surgical Center out on E. Paris in Grand Rapids. His procedure started with Fluorescein Angiography which is a dye injected into the blood stream to follow the blood flow in the eye. He has a lot of bleeding in the right eye and very little in the left. The bleeding in the right was causing his sight to act like Macular Degeneration, but it was not Everett had. Macular Degeneration is when the eye loses it's sight because of excessive blood vessels and bleeding in the eye, starting with the central vision and degressing from there. There is no name for what Everett has, Dr. Aaberg said it was like a birthmark in that there is no reason, medically speaking, for it to be there - it just is. The treatment given today was an injection of Avastin to clot the blood vessels that are still releasing blood into the eye. We go back on April 2 to see if this worked. If so, we will just have to come back periodically to make sure all is good. If it doesn't work then we do this procedure again until the blood clots. Laser Photocoagulation may have to be done only if Avastin has shown not be at all effective. Dr. Aaberg was very optimistic (I know it's a cliche' but he really was!) that this would work and we won't have to laser the blood flow to stop it. If it is lasered then the nerves are also deadened and he will never regain that central vision he has already lost. With Avastin there is a slim chance his eye could heal completely! It is hard not to get excited when you hear this but I have to remember that it is a "slim chance". He said children heal very well and better than an adult. So anyway, after his procedure we picked him up in recovery and headed to meet Tim for breakfast at Rainbow Grill. We were there around 10:30 already! He was a little loopy coming out of the anesthesia but over all came out well. He is bouncing around the house right now asking to ride his bike around the yard, so I think he will be fine :) Thanks to all of you for the prayers of his surgery and recovery we really appreciate it! And to Nikki, Pam, and Emily who took the other 3 kids last night too, it was a HUGE relief not to have to worry about them during the night last night and the day today too. Thanks for the words of encouragement as he came through this ordeal. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!