Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Myah had palate surgery!

I am backing up a bit to February 8th.  It was Jeff's 40th birthday.... and we got to spend it at Children's Mercy Hospital, for Myah's palate surgery.

We arrived at the hospital very early.
 Myah was delighted to be playing with daddy!

But was very unsure once we put on her hospital gown.
 She wanted to be held tight....
 until she was given the opportunity to color!

We were thankful that one of our dear friends, one of our pastor's came to pray with us before surgery.  They gave Myah a drink of some medicine that would help her not remember them taking her from us, as they went off to the operating room.  The nurse reached to take her and Myah turned away and held onto Jeff, but when he handed Myah to the nurse, she didn't cry!  Thank you Lord Jesus for that!

We heard from the nurse in the OR after about an hour that everything was going well.  They were finished faster than we anticipated, which was a delight.  We were ready to be reunited with our girl!  Unfortunately, she has a hard time coming out of the anesthesia, so we had to wait and wait and wait. 

Finally, we got the call that we could meet them in the hall.  Our precious girl was in a tiny baby bed and was sound asleep.  When we got to the room, I was anxious to hold her.... 


 She was pretty out of it, but she was happy to be in her mamma's arms.  She did pretty well, until evening and she started hitting, screaming and wrestling with us. 
 Daddy was able to calm her down a bit, after a 30 minute wrestling match with mommy.  Unfortunately, there were many more episodes like that through the night.  At 1 AM I opted to discontinue all of the narcotics and move to the over the counter meds. With that simple change, she calmed down and slept for hours. 

When morning arrived, she was happy to play with the toys, but was ready for all the cords and tubes to be removed.  To much delight the doctor felt that she had progressed beyond what they needed her to have, and she could get home!

Poppy Barnes came and picked us up and took us home!  Sleeping was very rough for the 1st few weeks.  the arm bands that Myah had to wear to keep her hands and other objects from entering her mouth got in her way when she wanted to roll over and get comfortable.  She ended up sleeping with us, so we could help her quickly, so she would go back to sleep.  We also had several episodes with night terrors.  Thankfully that only lasted a handful of nights.

She was on a liquid diet for 2 weeks.  She was not happy about that... until she had some of Poppy Barnes' cooking blended up for her.  She was in heaven.  That meal was repeated over and over again, to get her through those 2 weeks.

Once we reached week 3 post surgery, I noticed a hole in her palate.  The doctor thinks that it will close on its own.  We pray that it will, but if not, she will have it repaired several months from now!

Since her palate surgery she now can eat bread, she doesn't drool nearly as much, and less food escapes through her nose.  Her speech is progressing, with new words nearly every week!  We are so thankful for the great medical team and her speech therapist that take such good care of our precious girl!

1 comment:

  1. Whew!! That palate surgery is tough stuff, isn't it??? She really looked good post -op...I remember Tahlia looking so beat up after surgery:(. Isn't it wonderful to not see them struggle to swallow now, or food come out their sweet noses....thank God for skilled surgents!

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