Laser Surgery

This is Braeden's mommy. For those who followed our previous blog "Our Miracle Baby", some of you may recall that I had eye cancer two years ago, for which I was treated by a radiation plaque during two eye surgeries. The good news is that the cancer is gone. There always seems to be a flip side.

The radiation did some major damage to my retina. I ended up with radiation retinopathy, had some blood vessels that were leaking, causing my retina to swell, me to have discomfort, and my vision to begin deteriorating.

Friday I was back at the eye surgeon for laser surgery on my eye to zap those blood vessels, stop the leaking, and hopefully restore some of my lost vision, but at least to stop it deteriorating any further.

The procedure wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. I was there a total of two hours, and the actual laser part only took about 10 minutes. The worst part was when they gave me two numbing injections around my eye - not a fun thing. I left sporting an ugly patch, but only had to wear it the rest of Friday, then could remove it.

My eye is still red and swollen, a bit sore, but thankfully I didn't get the horrendous headache I was told to expect. A mild little thing that a few Advil took care of. The surgeon said I'd know in a week how much my vision would improve. I already notice some improvement, and hope it continues.

As for Braeden, he's doing great at 4 months, 1 week old today. We go to his pediatrician this week for his 4-month round of shots and check-up. Not looking forward to that, but hopefully he'll do as well with this batch as the last. He's fast becoming a very busy little guy, although he has a definite hair problem. There's so much of it that it stands straight up, even after a bath and even after using a blow dryer to try styling it. He kind of looks like one of those troll dolls (I may be dating myself on that one). Everyone's told us from the start that he'd lose all his baby hair, but so far while it's thinned out some at the back and on the sides, the top isn't showing any signs of thinning, and continues to grow. He's in desperate need of a hair cut, although I hate to do that in case there's still a chance it'll all fall out. We've cut a couple of snippets for his baby book, just in case.

Has anyone out there had a baby whose hair did not all fall out somewhere between birth and 6 months of age? His pediatrician said he may lose it or may not. We'll see what she says this week. Every outing we take him on, his hair is always the topic of conversation, but people keep saying it's only a matter of time until it's all gone - I hope not. I love his hair too.

I'm following your blogs, just not commenting too much. Wishing you all well, and will post again after Braeden's appointment this week.