Thor... and his eyes!

January is our semi-annual check up with Dr. Nixon, Thor's opthamologist. When Thor was 3 he had surgery to correct both eyes from crossing (strabismus). He actually wore glasses for about 2 months... but the glasses did not help to correct the issue, so surgery was scheduled for late May 2004. He was 3 1/2 then, and the recovery was very quick.

Thor has had annual visits with Dr. Nixon to 'watch' his eyes, to be sure his eyesight is staying on track in three different areas: his vision (20/20 nearly... so that is GREAT!!); his depth perception (not so great right now); and the crossing. I don't know what unit of measurement they use to describe the "crossing" but Thor is current at "25." Normal range is from 0-8.

January 27th he will go back for a 2nd strabismus procedure, Dr. Nixon will tighten a few of the outside muscles, to help pull his eyes out; as well as weaken a few of the inside muscles ... so they can't pull his eyes in quite as much.

As we scheduled the surgery date, Thor was not a very happy camper. He gets pretty nervous about any medical procedure, even getting his teeth cleaned the first time was a major ordeal! I think it's really the "unknown"... the more we talk about what he can expect, the usual procedure for things, what it will feel like (for example... it WON'T hurt ... not much at least)... he starts to relax and does much better.

One recent visit at the Dr.'s office to check out a large wart on his finger ended up in him throwing up all over the clinic floor... he was so nervous the Dr. was going to use a "LASER" to "kill" his wart, he just couldn't contain himself (literally!). Then she told him he never uses a laser on kids under 12... he was much better for the rest of the appointment!

Anyway -- we've been talking about what will happen the day of his surgery... He won't be able to eat or drink when he gets up in the morning... We'll be with him in the pre-op room... he gets some medicine called the "I don't care" cocktail.... he goes to sleep... 1/2 hour later it's all done... they bring dad and I into the "wake up room" and then he gets to pick out whatever kind of pop he wants to drink... and in about an hour we can take him home again.

BTW: recovery time is 24 hours!! Pretty cool, huh?!! Except he can't swim for 7 days... so he will miss one of his swim lesson classes (with Zion classmates), but he'll be able to get back to school by noon on Wednesday, or for sure first thing Thursday!

Now Thor says the surgery sounds like "fun..." He can't wait to pick out his soda pop! (he hasn't been allowed to drink pop while he's had his braces on... so this will be an exception)....