So, it happened, Terri had her eye removed.
We opted to keep the date on the quiet, with us as a family not being ready to face it ourselves, the prospect of telling the rest of the world wasn't something we were eager to do. We found out a week prior to the operation date, not giving us too much time to overthink but just enough time for us to realise that it was actually happening.
The days leading up to the operation I shut the rest of the world out and focused all my energy on Terri. I made sure I had no plans and was home to spend as much quality time with her as i could - especially with the day before being her 17th birthday.
We had tried to explain to her that the hospital was going to fix her eye. To make her more comfortable. Something that was even hard for us to take in, how could we expect her to understand.
She was taken to the RVI in Newcastle to have the procedure done - Mam and Dad traveled down with her and me and Lee stayed at home. She was the second person down to the theater, going down at around 10:10 am, the next message I received off Dad was at 12:00 pm, "The surgeon has just been and said it all went well." The relief
To those of you who don't know what the procedure includes: The surgeon removes the eye ball, leaving the eyelashes and eye lids in place, the back of the eye is then covered (not sure how) and a false eye front/ball is inserted.
The next step of the procedure would be to have a mold of her eye socket done to replicate her eye and create a realistic prosthetic. For this to be done it is a separate procedure and the mold itself ca take around 2 hours. Something Terri would not be pleased about. So, I think we are just going to leave her with a plain replacement - she is beautiful either way and anything we can do to stop traumatizing her anymore is more important.
Terri, Mam and Dad spent one night in hospital and were sent home the following day.
When she came home she had a patch to cover her eyes which was to left on for 48 hours after the operation. Since then, we have removed the patch to see her swollen little face. It looks like she has been in a fight and she is struggling with headaches. For a few days she wouldn't let anyone touch her except Mam, but she is getting better now. Everyday her face is looking a bit better and she is complaining less about pain.
I think it will be a while before she is back to her normal self, but as long as her eye is no longer causing her discomfort and pain, then we have done the right thing.
Again, I would like to say thank you to everyone who has messaged asking after her and those that have checked in with us - we are very grateful. Now it is just a case for us to see how she settles and hope that we have her back to normal soon.
xxx
Comments