Back to straighten the eyes

Magalie went back to surgery last Wednesday February 17 for outpatient surgery to make her eyes point in the same direction.



Listening to Grandpa's heart.



Getting her heart checked.


Doped up and headed to surgery.


Minnesota winter.

Magalie has a cold

Magalie has been alternating between feeling okay and feeling pretty miserable. Charlene has been in touch with her primary care doc at Mayo about it. Right now we are in a "wait and see" mode. Her surgrey is not until Wednesday of next week, so hopefully the cold will be cleared up by then. Here she is looking at the most recent snowfall. Check out the flamingo on the lower right, asking to be let in.

Magalie at Home and Plans for the Future

Princess Magalie taking care of business.


At Jerebek's Bakery this morning.

Getting ready to go out. It was 1 degree this morning.

Helping Grandpa finish off the banana pudding (made with Haitian vanilla)

Checking the photo wall, looking for Roberta.

I have applied for an extension of Magalie's visa because of a follow-up surgery, now scheduled for February 17. It is a 20 minute outpatient surgery, but they want to see how it worked as much as eight weeks later. The surgery is to correct the muscle in her right eye to line up the eyes to point in the same direction. There is a small chance that she will have to have another small surgery after that. Right now her flight to Haiti with Charlene is scheduled for April 16. So we get to enjoy her company a little longer.

After the Surgery - Day 2

They got the tubes out this morning and Magalie is waking up. Charlene and I both got to hold her this afternoon. She looks like she got run over by a truck. She will not be able to open her eyes for a day or two yet because of all the surgery around them. They have been greased up, so don't look so good. With all that said, here is a picture.

The Latest Non-Report

We had to show up here at 6:00. Went to a prep room, answered tons of questions and got her dressed. She left there a little after 8:00. They put her to sleep between 8 and 9. According to the board surgery began about 10:00. It is predicted to go 10-12 hours, so it could be a very long day. I will attempt to keep everyone up to date via this blog.

New Info

This morning, Charlene and Magalie took off for Rochester on thier own. Alex has an appointment this afternoon and I need to be here to get him to it. Magalie was not able to eat anything solid because they are putting her to sleep to do an MRI. Apparently that is standard procedure, but it makes us nervous because it was the anesthesia the hospital mentioned in conjunction with all the bad things that could happen (paperwork written by their lawyers, I am sure, but no less scary). As I write this Magalie is in the MRI and it will be another hour before she is recovered.

Also, we learned yesterday that what we have been calling a tumor is actually part of her brain protruding beyond the cranium. That makes me much more nervous about the surgery than I was. Please keep this little girl in your prayers.