Palate Surgery Day

Dressed for the trip to the hospital, and grooving on a spoon while lounging on the floor: Ignorance is Bliss



Don't I look nice in mint green? This toy is fun, too:


Taking her initial vitals in preop. Coincidentally, we have had the same nurse for each and every surgery the girls have undergone (this is surgery #3). He is super nice, and the resemblance to Tom Hanks is amazing (especially in person):



She might be getting a little suspicious now. They are about to dose her with "versed", a medication whose purpose is to make her loopy, calm any jitters, and result in amnesia about anything that has to do with the operating room:



The time has come. Daddy carries her towards the operating room. The anesthesiologist and operating room nurse lead the way, wheeling her bed along (background):

Warning: if the following picture makes you squeamish, don't look at the pictures farther below:

Surgery took about an hour. Our surgeon thought he might do a two-stage repair if the width of her cleft necessitated it (i.e., first the soft palate, then the hard palate a couple of months later). However, after really looking at it under sedation, he decided to do a standard (entire palate) repair. Per her surgeon, immediately post surgery, “she is oozing more than the average bear” (meaning she was bleeding quite a bit). Here she is, as soon as we could see her, in the PACU (Post anesthesia care unit). At this point the bleeding didn't seem to bad to us ... yet:

After getting to our room I learned what "more than the average bear" could mean (see picture below). As afternoon became night, the bleeding seemed to get worse and the nurses ended up calling the surgeon at home, and also calling the Resident on duty to the room. The bleeding was excessive and hard to watch—it went on for hours. Next I knew, Pediatric Intensive Care was there (to see it themselves and draw blood for testing her actual amount of blood loss, clotting factors, etc.), along with several other nurses (and the Chaplain!) The Chaplain was coincidental (though I didn’t initially know this). Yellow Teddy (Butter Bear) brought much-needed comfort, and everyone said “awwww” when Tupelo grabbed and hugged her—she is now “bloody” Teddy :) After the Chaplain prayed for her the bleeding miraculously stopped—not kidding. NOT kidding.

Despite what was happing, she drank apple juice with intense gusto bordering on desperation (which is a VERY GOOD thing after palate surgery). Thank you morphine.

The next morning Tupelo and Yellow Teddy ended up in my bed, where the coziness of my sleeping bag induced the sleep that had been lost during the night:

Awake and puffy, she actually isn't completely unhappy and was able to eat/drink yogurt, berry applesauce, and juice.

Now that we are home, Tupelo has resumed most of her goofy antics, though peppered with a fair amount of whining and crankyness. She still won't open her mouth enough for us to get a good look (but I think her tongue was/is a little swollen). Please say a little prayer (in whatever style you wish) that her palate heals completely and perfectly.