Isla had her 32nd EUA with Dr Sia on Friday the 29th of January. Again, Garreth took the day off work to take her to her appointment. Admission time was 7am and when they arrived Garreth asked them to call the plastics registrar regarding her mole. He was told ‘It doesn’t work like that.’…… ‘We know!! That’s why we’re asking you to call, because we spoke to them yesterday and that’s what they asked us to do!’ So Garreth thought it seemed unlikely that her mole was going to get done that day. However, the administration girl was very helpful and found the note in her file about her mole. It all got organised eventually and plastics came to see Isla while they were waiting in day surg. They said they could remove the mole that morning after her EUA, it would just add about 45minutes on to her procedure.
Isla is now a seasoned professional at putting drops in her eyes. Since she did so well last time, Garreth told the nurse the easiest way to do it is to let her close her eyes, put the drops in the corner of her eye and she will blink them in. To that suggestion he was told that he can do them himself. It is still a bit of an adjustment for us coming from RCH to WCH where you feel like a nuisance for suggesting what works best for Isla, but the nurse eventually listened and helped Garreth put the drops in and Isla blinked them in herself. She then said to Garreth ‘Oh, that is a good way to do it.’
Isla got moved down the theatre list a little and ended up going in just after 9am. Isla isn’t a fan of the gas mask, so the anaesthetist just let her hide all wrapped up in a blanket on Garreth’s lap while he wafted the gas underneath the blanket until she was asleep, which worked well. The doctor rang Garreth after he was finished and it was the best report we had ever got. Nothing new and all looking stable and he said her right eye is looking really healthy. While ‘healthy’ certainly doesn’t mean functioning, it does mean it’s hopefully less likely that her eye will shrivel up and die and have to be removed anyway, so that’s great news! The doctor told Garreth he doesn’t think she would have any vision at all in that eye, which is pretty much what we thought.
After the eye doctors had finished, the plastic surgeons went in to remove her mole and Isla was back with Garreth in day surgery around 11:30am. She took a little while to wake up, but was soon up and eating and drinking again. She had 3 stitches in her finger and quite a big bandage on her hand to protect it. She had to keep her hand dry and stay away from sandpits for 2 weeks. So no swimming lessons and no childcare for a couple of weeks. The stitches were dissolvable, but we had a follow up appointment with plastics in 2 weeks to check that it was healing ok. They were home again just after lunch.
© Alison Davey 2021
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