Sunday, January 24, 2010

January 2010 trip to Boston

Back to Boston again. This time we were unable to find anyone who could come with us. So Fred stayed at the hotel with the two younger kids and I went with Keith to the hospital. It was an easy surgery for him this time as they only had to use the laser...which does not cause much in swelling or pain. He did have a hard time coming out of the anesthisia, it took about 5 hours. We will have to re-evaluate this for the next surgery. The surgeon (Dr Duker)  said that we would need to see our retinal specialist (Dr Kim) in Burlington in 4 weeks. If he does not see a significant reduction in the amount of fluid in Keith's eye then Keith would need to come back down to Boston shortly after the appointment for a vitrectomy (which is where they will make 3 incisions in the eye and drain the fluid out, then they will replace it with a saline solution) I am not looking forward to this as this has many more complications. We went to Boston 2 days before his surgery so we were able to take the kids to the Boston Museum of Science! Wow was that fun!! For Christmas, Fred's parents gave the kids some money, so they pooled it and bought a years membership for the family which also includes like 100+ museums, zoos, and aquariums accross the US and Canada. They had a Harry Potter Exhibit that was great! Over priced, but great. I don't think that we even saw half of the museum and we were there for 6 hours. When we arrived home we were very lucky that our Church and friends had arranged to have meals delivered to our house for the rest of the week. It was such a relief not to have to worry about dinner while helping Keith recover!


There was an amazing lightning show!




Logan had to cover his ears for the loud "booms"




The Amazing Nano Brothers Juggling Show!
This was so cool. The kids laughed quite a bit!



A view of Fenway Park from the top of the Prudential Center!




One of the cool machines to take pictures of Keith's retina.


November trip to Boston

November 4th we went to Boston for another surgery on Keith's eye. My sister Holly came to hlep with the kids while we were with Keith at the hospital. What a great help. We did not have to worry about the kids at all. We were able to go for a walk around Boston and to the park the day before surgery. The surgery was a tough one this time as they did mostly cryo and that creates a lot of swelling. Keith is getting a little better at the whole process although he still really hates it. It took about 10 days for the swelling to go down, and about 6 weeks before the dilating drops wore off in his left eye. His right eye (the coats eye) has not retuned back to normal. During this surgery the cryo damaged the iris muscle and so his pupil remains larger then normal. We don't know if will ever go back to normal. It does not react to light anymore. His vision is about the same as before, he can only tell light from dark and can see dark shapes but no details. We are so llucky to have such great support from our family, friends and our church family who continues to pray for Keith.




Tufts Children's Floating Hospital




Checking out the pigeons. The kids loved how they would eat right from your hands!


Walking through the park in Boston!




Brothers checking out he scenery.



Mom and kids!


Sarah......



Aunt Holly chillin with the kids in the hotel



Mom and Keith, ready to go in the OR......




Keith playing on Mom's laptop during recovery at the hotel.