The break-up

I haven't reported on Anya's last doctor's visit because we have been too busy having fun around here. It was nearly a month ago, and, in truth, there wasn't a whole lot to report.  She saw her surgeon for a post-op visit.  He thought that everything looked good.  Despite what this picture shows, her eyelid has opened a lot.  It isn't always as open as her other eye, but her body is still learning to use her eyebrow muscle to open it.  The most marked times that I notice it being more closed are when she is tired.  There was one stitch remaining on her eyebrow, but it has subsequently dissolved as it should, it just a took a bit longer.

At the end of the appointment, I asked when he wanted to see Anya back and he said that he didn't need to.  I asked again.  It took days for me to accept it, and I think there are two reasons for that:  1.  As Will said when I told him, "Doctors don't break up with us.  We may break up with them, but they don't break up with us."  It is true, though, we have never been in contact with a doctor that does not want to see Anya again.  There is always another appointment on the horizon.  2.  We like him.  I surprise myself saying this because I had heard of this doctor long before I met him.  I knew that he was the doctor that enucleates eyes, and I never wanted to meet him.  Then October 4, 2011 happened and we found out that the cancer had reactivated in Anya's eye, and there was no other choice than to take her eye.  We met Dr. D that same day, talked with him for a bit, and the next time we saw him was less than a week later in the OR.  Due to the various complications that Anya suffered from her surgery, we saw Dr. D more than many patients.  It took a few visits for Anya to warm up to him, but before long she was singing for him and chatting away about dogs, his kids, shoes, and just about anything else.  We saw him less than a week after her surgery this summer and she was running and jumping into his arms to give him a hug.  To watch that as a parent, it does nothing less than warm your heart.  I think it says a lot about this man that he could take Anya's eye, and she could love him this much.  And to see him interact with her, I would say he feels similarly.  On the day we first met him, he said that with Retinoblastoma kids such as Anya, his job is easy because what he is doing is life-saving.  Perhaps that is where the bond started.

Less than a week after "the break-up," a birthday gift came in the mail for Anya.  It was a DVD of Journey's greatest hits.  A select few of you will realize why someone would give that to Anya, but I will keep it short here and say that it was an entirely thoughtful gift, and once she realized what it was, Anya exclaimed, "this is the best present ever!"