The Ugly, The Bad and The Good

Our first cleft palate surgery was held on May 13, 2008. The title of this post kind of speaks for itself. There have been the ugly times, the bad times and the good times throughout the whole cleft surgery experience thus far. The ugly (worst) time was seeing Mason-Kate in the recovery room just moments after surgery. To say she was miserable is putting it lightly. Ryan and I both felt very helpless as there was really nothing that we could do to soothe her. The nurse kept giving her morphine after morphine dose to the point that she had to call the dr. to approve more. I will say that for MK, having the nurses and the doctors and all of the other hospital affiliated people around her was a great deal of the problem. As out of it as MK was, she was constantly looking around to see where the next person in scrubs was standing in relation to her. She did not trust anyone who was within her eyesight except mommy and daddy. That being said, I spent a lot to time in the hospital thinking about how horrible it must have been for Mason-Kate when she had her lip repaired in China. Was there anyone to hold her? to comfort her? was she in a lot of pain? To let my mind go there was upsetting. So, onto the "bad" part of our experience thus far....I would have to say that the bad part was having all of the extra stuff attached to MK. She had her tongue stitched down (to provide an airway should they had needed one)....Ryan and I were sure that her tongue was going to come out at any moment due to the fact that the string hung from her mouth and was constantly in our way while we were cuddling her. Then we had the "no-nos" to contend with....they make her arms stick straight out. When an unhappy child is flailing her non bending arms around, someone is going to get hit in the face by them, Murphy's Law. Then we had the IV....holding her or lying beside her or dressing her was a challenge with the IV as you had to make sure that it was not in danger of coming out. Then we had the oxygen canula in her nose....she did require oxygen until later Tuesday evening. They had it all taped to her face and then the one nurse decided she didn't need it anymore and chose to take it off right then and there....I was a little upset by this decision as MK was actually sleeping....never should you wake a sleeping child, especially a sick, sleeping child! Now, onto the "good" part of all of this....I am thankful that we have one surgery under our belts. We had an amazing surgeon with great skill. He is very upfront with us and does not sugar coat anything to get our hopes up. I like this. Our nurses (except for the canula one) were very attentive and made sure that we had everything to make our stay as comfortable as possible. Mason-Kate was in pain but we were able to console her once we got settled into our room. We managed to get 3 hours of sleep. A friend brought us pizza....pizza makes for a great 3:00am snack :) Mason-Kate was smiling by 3:00am. So, now that we have been home for a day....we soundly slept for 7 hours last night, yippee! MK can only have pure liquids...yum! So, we went on a hunt for soups and yogurts that she can drink from a cup. She became a little houdini last night and managed somehow to get one of the "no-nos" off while we all slept. She is only taking regular Tylenol which seems to be working for the most part. We will keep you updated on her progress. We go back to the surgeon for a follow-up visit next Friday.

These were taken just after we moved from recovery to a regular room:

Yes, mom put a bow in my hair....everybody here thought I was a boy. And a rare moment of sleep.

G-mom and MK going for a walk; Leaving MCG, going home!

Now that I'm at home I can rest...anywhere I want!