The Goodwins

Just a quick update on Ella … our lives keep passing by and I can’t seem to get on the computer, so please forgive me for not getting this together sooner.

Ella had her eye surgery on August 14th and everything went very well – the doctor saw her the day after and was pleased with how straight her eyes looked. And, while sleeping in arm restraints and having drops & greasy gel put into her eyes made her extremely unhappy at first, she has been a trooper as usual and by the end was even allowing dad to put the medicine in without mom having to sit on her! We have finished all her meds and only have a couple days left of the arm restraints and we’ll be all done.

The procedure was called a bi-lateral medial rectus recession. It involved making an incision on the white part of her eyes – on the sides so there should be no visible scaring. From that point the doctor detached the muscles (nearest her nose) and re-attached them further back on the eye. They used dissolving sutures and she did not have any bandages or patches over her eyes when they were finished.

We have a follow up appointment at the end of September to check the true outcome of the surgery. In the meantime, she’ll continue to wear her current glasses prescription with the potential of outgrowing her far-sightedness (kids often do). However, there is a good chance that as she grows she will move into being near-sighted like dad, so she’ll probably continue needing glasses regardless, but we’ll see.

Thank you to everyone for all the supoprt you always provide to us!

Ella’s 350 ml expander has 484 ml of saline since last Saturday.  That means she has over 17 ounces or nearly 1.1 lbs in her head which is over 5% of her body weight.

Ella’s in great spirits.  We’ve been talking about saying “bye bye” to her bubble which seems to please her.  Of course, it’s hard to explain that a second bubble will be coming, as well as two to three more surgeries.  The surgeon tells us that he’ll decide tomorrow during surgery if the front expander can be put in or not.  If it’s not put in, it may be as long as October until the front implant is put in to her forehead area.  We also found out in June that Ella will need corrective surgery as her eyes are crossing.

We came over late this afternoon and checked into the Ronald McDonald House.  I was able to get a quick bite to eat as Bonnie and Ella had McDonald’s on the way over and I had a late lunch after working until about 2 PM before coming home to eat.  Ella wasn’t really hungry, but had to eat a bit with daddy anyway.

She had a grand time getting a new bear and toy (a race car that SHE picked out), finding a really LARGE bear, and an even bigger dog, exploring the play room, playing video games, and bathing in the oversized tub.  She watched some Veggietales, read  a book with Mom and Dad and went down surprisingly easy.

Of course, she very well could be upstairs crying for Mom as I’m downstairs finding the wireless connection here.  Amazing how you can be tethered by wireless. But nothing seems to be holding Ella down right now.

Ella’s surgery is scheduled for 7:30 AM CST.  We are planning on heading over the Children’s Memorial from the Ronald McDonald House around 6:15 AM.  As Ella JUST went down and is not to have food after midnight or water after 4 AM, it might be a hard morning if the surgery is delayed.  That was a hard thing for her before the last surgery, which wasn’t until almost noon, as she was showing us every food sign she could think of and we were ignoring them.

That’s about all.  We put pictures up from today at ellagoodwin.com and will try to keep everyone updated here.

Thank you for all your continued prayers and God Bless!