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A full week has passed since Bambina had her surgery, and she's mostly doing well. She hasn't been taking as much formula as usual, fighting us pretty vehemently when offered a bottle, but it looks like she's getting close to turning that corner. Her "solid food" intake dropped as well, but I think that's close to working its way out, too. I don't think it has to do with her mouth being sore, I think it's more of remembering when it was sore and not wanting it to hurt. My guess is that memory is fading now, so hopefully feedings will improve.
We haven't been making her wear the arm braces, as those have just frustrated her. Instead, she just hasn't been offered anything small enough to actually fit in her mouth, so she hasn't had any problems. Every once in a while she tries to put her fingers in her mouth, but that's been caught pretty quickly. We were told she is allowed to use her bink-a-bluff-a-paci-cork-a-nuk, so that keeps her hands out of her mouth overnight.
The big thing that is of any concern to me at this point is her ears. She had tubes put in at the same time she had her plastic surgery done, and we've been given drops to put in her ears. There's still a lot of dried blood in her ear canals, for those of you who have had kids with ear tubes, is that normal? She doesn't seem to mind the drops when I give them to her, but every once in a while she bats at her left ear, which seems to have more caked/dried blood than the right. There's no seepage at all, so I'm tempted to not worry, but there's this niggling in the back of my mind that I can't quite ignore...
The biggest frustration for us at this point is her sleeping. We've had some pretty rough nights, and she's been fighting going down something fierce lately. Last night, it took Amy's mom over an hour to get her calmed down and asleep, which has been, unfortunately, pretty typical since the surgery. Whenever we set her in the bed, no matter how tired she is, she just starts wailing, and cries and screams literally until she just can't go any more. Bedtime is bad enough, but she's done it overnight once or twice, too, which just puts Amy and me in a foul mood.
No picture of the inside of her mouth yet. I keep trying to get one, but I just can't seem to get a clear shot. It think I just got lucky with the one I took before her surgery. I'll keep trying, though, so you all can see how things look different post-surgery.
Just a quick note to let you all know that Bambina is home. Amy said that she turned a corner last night, and though she's not eating as much as she was pre-surgery, she's eating. The hospital staff felt comfortable letting her leave, so we blew that popsicle stand a little after 9A this morning. So far, all is well. Thanks to all for your thoughts, prayers and well wishes!
It's Thursday night, and Amy is spending it with Bambina at the hospital. The problem? We're unable to feed her. Given the problems we had feeding her when we first brought her home, we're not checking her out until we're reliably able to get food into her. Other than the feeding problems, though, she seems to be doing well. One of the surgeons had a look at Bambina this morning and said that everything looked good inside her mouth. Noone has gone out of their way to check out her ears, but since they're not oozing, we're taking that as a good sign. Hopefully we'll be able to get Bambina home tomorrow.
It's just after 5P here in central OH, and Amy and I are watching Bambina sleep in the hospital cage/crib. She's high on Tylenol with codeine, which seems to give her just enough pain relief to allow her to get some rest. The surgery itself was successful per the doctors, so now all that's left is the recovery. No pictures today, I took several, but can't bear to post them yet. Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers. We'll post more as her recovery continues.
At long last, Bambina's surgery draws near. Tomorrow, August 6, at 2:10 PM she goes under the knife to have her cleft soft palate repaired. We don't have a lot of details, other than they're going to use existing tissue in her mouth to close the gap, and the plastic surgeon will be creating a uvula during the proceedings. She'll also be getting tubes in her ears, as the audiologist who checked her out during her last visit found fluid in her ears. Recovery is expected to entail three weeks of arm braces to keep her from putting stuff in her mouth. People we've talked to tell us that she's unlikely to be in prolonged pain from her actual surgery, so that's a blessing.
So, if all goes well, the next time you hear from us, Bambina will be a new woman, with her birth defect a thing of the past. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers...
