Kira's Palate Surgery

Kira had her surgery to close her palate on Tuesday. Everything went fine. When the surgeon came out to talk to us, he was actually smiling and told us that it went really, really well, absolutely as well as a bilateral repair can be, with no tension anywhere. He was confident that it was a very good repair. Now it is our job to keep it that way until she is totally healed and keep those little fingers out of her mouth!

She, expectedly, had a very rough day Tuesday after she woke up. They actually called us back to the initial recovery room, where they don't usually have parents,
because she wouldn't calm down, and they wanted us to help calm her down. I remember, from my own experience with anestesia, that horrible panicky feeling coming out of it, and that was obviously what she was experiencing. She was absolutely thrashing around for a good while. It was so scary seeing her right after surgery all bloody and thrashing around. I really had to keep myself together and stay calm for her. We joked that, with blood oozing out of her mouth and dripping down her face, we didn't need a Halloween costume for her, she could just go as is and would be a pretty scary looking goblin! I guess some comic relief helps you get through seeing your child like that. :)

That whole first day and night was pretty horrible for her, but she started doing much better Wednesday. We came home Wednesday afternoon and she was much happier at home. She quickly figured out how to crawl, pull up, and play with her arm restraints on, and she is accepting them fairly well except for when she is trying to get to sleep. It breaks my heart. Her habit falling asleep is to pull her blanket up to her mouth and suck her fingers, which obviously she can't do now with her arm restraints on. She will be getting very sleepy and try to grab for her blanket and pull her arms up to her mouth and just cry when she can't. We aren't getting much sleep around here this week! This surgery has also turned her from a Daddy's girl into a Mommy's girl. She pretty much only wants Mommy now.

Our biggest problem has been getting fluids in her since she's been home from the hospital. She has to use a feeder called a Haberman feeder because she is not allowed to suck until her mouth is healed. It is a bottle where parents can sqeeze the formula into the mouth. She virtually refused to eat this way for 4 days. Every once in awhile she would stop crying for a couple of ounces, but it just wasn't cutting it. We forced enough to make sure she wasn't dehydrated, but yesterday afternoon I was sure we were going to end up back in the hospital with her on IV nutrition again because things just weren't getting better, and she was actually starting to show signs of dehydration. Finally, last night she gave up the fight and started eating normally with the Haberman feeder. She has taken her regular amount of formula all day today. I can't even say how relieved I am by that!

Okay, well, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that Kira continues to recover well and that her repair stays intact until she is completely recovered.