New Year, Lot's Going On

The holidays were a busy time for us. The holidays are always busy, but for us this year it was busier than usual. At the beginning of December Bryan saw his ear nose and throat doctor and was told that he needed sinus surgery (which he already knew that). Around the same time Matthew had to see an eye doctor for a problem he's been having with his left eye (it drags and when he looks to the left or right he sees double).

Since Bryan had already met his deductible on the insurance for 2010, we tried to get his surgery scheduled for the month of December. We were able to do that and the surgery was on December 28th.

Just before Christmas we saw the eye doctor concerning Matthew's eye problem. Matthew had a nerve that was paralyzed near his left eye (Cranial Nerve Palsy). The eye dr wanted to do an MRI to see if there was something causing this. The MRI was schedule for Dec. 23 (just two days before Christmas in Savannah!). He was a big boy even though it was a scary procedure. The worst part for him was the IV, he is terrified of needles.

On December 28th we arrived at the hospital very early (6:30 a.m.)! Thank goodness we had the kids spend the night with their grandparents' the night before and did not have to get them up that early. Around 7:30 they took him back to get him prepped. Around 8:00 they let me go back with him and stay with him until time for the surgery. Bro. James Bland, the associational missionary for the Tattnall-Evans Southern Baptist Association was kind enough to come and have prayer with us before the surgery (and then stayed around until the doctor came out and said that everything went fine). They took Bryan back for surgery around 10:00 and around 11:30 the doctor came out to let me know that the surgery went well. About 1:30 or 2:00 they came and got me and took me to the room Bryan was in for recovery. (Yes, that was a long time--I think he had a hard time coming out of the anesthesia.)

While I was sitting in the room with Bryan, the eye doctor called my cell phone to give me the results of the MRI. He said that the MRI showed that Matthew has Chronic Sinus Disease and it is more on the left side than the right. He wanted to know if we have an ENT that we use! Ha, Ha! How convenient. He wanted our ENT to look over the MRI and see if this sinus disease could be the cause of Matthew's eye problem. So, we decided that when we go for Bryan's follow up appointment we will ask the ENT doctor about that.

Bryan had a rough few days after the surgery but he was a pretty good patient. I babied him, just like I would one of the children! I used my Ninja (food processor) to chop everything up for him to be able to eat. Bless his heart, he ate chopped up, mashed up food for a week. Everything looked like baby food. On his follow up appointment, Jan. 3rd the doctor cleaned out his nose and told him that he still needs to take it easy for a couple more weeks. (He wasn't happy about that!) I'm still having a hard time getting him to take it easy, but he is pretty much listening to me and the doctor. He doesn't like it but he knows I'll get highly upset if he does too much!

The doctor also looked at Matthew's MRI and showed it to us. Basically Matthew has a pocket of sinus infection pressing on his left optic nerve. The doc said this very well could be the reason for Matthew's left eye dragging! He prescribed about 3 weeks worth of antibiotics, mucinex and nasal spray. At the end of the 3 weeks we will run another ct scan and see how it looks. Depending on what the ct scan shows, he may have to do surgery. If he does do surgery, he will just go in and drain all that sinus infection out. I asked the doctor if he could have had this for several months and not have symptoms such as fever etc. and he said "yes, years even". It's just amazing to me that the cause of Matthew's eye problem is sinuses and that with the technology we have today they were able to find it!

Here is a recreation of the MRI to show kind of what is going on in Matthew's head:


I am starting Winter Quarter today. I'm excited about the classes I am taking, I just hope that I can keep up this quarter with everything else I've got going on. Pray for us as Bryan heals from his surgery and Matthew might be facing surgery. It has been a very interesting start to the new year!