Dr visit and life...

Yesterday we got to see the plastics Dr regarding vanessa breaking the suture. Good news, no major harm done. Bad news, it did not stay in long enough to complete its job. It did however cause the palate to collase a tiny bit. Just enough that Dr feels ok doing a total lip repair in 6 weeks.

Dr says there is still swelling, thats why 6 weeks. She doesnt look swollen to me but... whatever. That puts her next procedure right around my birthday sometime. That is, if we are even still here. Freakin job market here in cali sucks, and Our unemployment income is exhausted, Tom is on weekly extensions. And SSI's idea of support for Vanessa is less than 400 a month, IE not enough. Suckage most foul. If funds dont improve we may be in Tennessee by july. How does that fix things you ask? no rent, less bills, new area to job hunt. How do we get there? drive. What about Vanessa? theres a craniofacial team in Tn too.

Really, people say things like:
"God won't throw at you what you cannot handle."
or,
"what doesnt kill you makes you stronger."
or,
" It could be worse."

I say.... ENOUGH. Yeah someone out there has it worse, it could be worse, we can handle it. But enough with the major stress factors ok? This mess is giving me more anxiety, I just want ONE stress factor to abate please? Make one problem go away???? Just one?

Not all Daisies and Puppies

So, about a week after her first lip repair, she managed to break the suture that was supposed to stay in there. The cleft of course, opened back up to almost as wide as before. We call the Dr....

Dr. is in Guatemala until May 30th. Well F*&%  me, what do we do now? Nothing, the nurse says nothing to do. We could see their backup at UCI, but they won't fix it, just make sure she is o.k. She has an apt with Dr on the 30th. I wonder what he will do, since  most of his work will be ruined and she will be mostly healed.

Cuss words. Loads of cuss words. In multiple languages even.

Ear tubes

Well, it went smooth as well! Hooray! Yesterday morning, bright and early, I had to be at CHOC/St Josephs 5am for check in and pre-op procedures. At 5:55am she was taken to the OR and by 6:20am she was awake in recovery. Talk about fast! super fast, lightening fast, Dr might be a robot fast. lol

She has ear drops, the name sounds like an antibiotic to me. But the after care specifically says "a fever would not be related to this procedure." Um... if you give an Rx for antibiotics, that means theres a chance of infection right? and infections cause fever. duh. But whatever, she wont get one because she was also on antibiotics orally for the lip repair from Saturday.

She is pulling through all this like a champ. Eats good, crys good, smiles good and wriggles herself out of the "no no" arm bands constantly. I finally just duct taped them to her sleeves last night. Yes, Duct tape... must be a hold over from my SCA days.


I suppose I could have made this some long drawn out post, but really, no need to when things go smooth right?

Her First Surgical procedure



Before.....

I have to say, before I even go into detail, that things went much smoother and she looks better than I ever expected. This is a nice drama free post. Horay! Our older daughter stayed home with Grandma for the day.

We got to CHOC at 5:45am, got signed in by security and only had to wait for staff to show up before immidiatly being taken to the SSU (short stay unit). At the SSU, everyone exclaimed about how happy our little girl was, how adorable her smile was... Very kind people, who obviously enjoyed their job and cared about the kids in their ward.

We got the pre-op checks done, and a very nice man, (the anethisiologist actually) carried her into the O.R. since we couldn't go in there. He talked about his 2 year old, and his almost due baby a couple times during pre-op discussion. He made us feel comfortable and safe letting our baby go with him. The Plastic surgeon was also very understanding and friendly, Dr Jaffurs has always been friendly and kind at every visit or meeting we have attended with him. I very much like our Plastics Dr, he is wonderful and I highly recomend him as a good guy.

I napped for the hour and a half (or so) in the waiting room of the SSU while they did the procedure. I was soooooo tired, I couldn't stay awake even if I wanted to. No nightmare about her not waking up this time either. For the first time in a week, I slept without bad dreams, in a mostly comfortable padded chair.

When she was finished, the Dr talked to us, and a little bit later we went to recovery to see her. She did NOT wake up a happy camper let me tell you! Do you blame her??? After she got mostly "functional" we were taken to a room. Not a private one, but the other baby in there was sleeping alot and the parents were very nice. The nurse was polite, friendly and easy to speak to,  the rest of the staff was friendly though busy. Once she was eating o.k, they told us she could go home. We did not have to stay overnight because she didnt show signs of major problems and didn't vomit her food back up at all. We got home around 8pm.

She is sleeping well, thanks to the tylenol with codine most likely. She looks almost normal! They turned a completed large cleft lip into a partcial, incomplete. AND fixed her little nose quite a bit too.She wants to smile, but I think it hurts a bit. She looks alot like me now.

Her next procedure is for the ear tubes on Tuesday. Not a big deal, but I still dislike that ENT, although Dr Jaffurs assures me he is the best ENT and she is in good hands with that Dr as well. It should be an in and out procedure.

After:

not the best pic, but she was sleeping when we pulled out the camera again

and didn't want to wake her up.

I will post better pics in another post.

At the Starting Gate

Lets cut right to the chase. Tomorrow, Saturday, Vanessa get her first lip surgery. A Saturday surgery? Yup, even better, it's cinco De Mayo. How do I feel about that? Obviously I must be terrified because all week it's been nightmare central in my brain. Reoccurring dreams that she does not wake up from the anesthetic. Every. Single. night. Sometimes 2 times.

Our baby is of course, blissfully unaware that she is getting a major operation done. Although she has been pounding down the formula all week. One day she ate close to twice as much as usual! Growing baby. :) I cannot figure out how to explain to Aileen that her sister will look different, or that the "ouchie" she comes home with is a good thing. Ug...

My mom is coming over tonight and staying until we get back from the hospital tomorrow evening. She will take care of Ailee, so we can both be at the hospital.However next week, on Tuesday, Vanessa goes in for her ear tubes. They couldn't schedule them at the same time.There's a story there, so lets discuss.

1. The ENT specialist is supposedly on call this Saturday so couldn't come in for the 1/2 hour it would take him to do her ears while she is under at 7:30am.
2.  Regardless of the above stated reason #1, I think he just doesn't want to come in. Part of me understands that, everyone needs a day off but seriously...
3. All this means that she will be under anesthetic 2x in less that 5 days. Full anesthetic for the lip,(breathing tube and everything) and a mask/lighter anesthetic for the ears.
4. The ENT Dr was unconcerned (about anything frankly). The Plastic surgeon was not thrilled about such a small child being "under" 2x. The plastics Dr also indicated that the ENT has NEVER worked with him on scheduling before., not once. EVER. 
5. The ENT specialist seems like an ass with no bedside manners or people skills. My pre-op apt yesterday for him was at 11am. At 11:15am a nurse showed me into a room. At 12:15pm the Dr finally came strolling in, and what is the first thing he says to me??? "Any questions?" That's how you END a conversation jackass, not how you start one. I was rather pissed off but managed to keep my cool. Why did I keep my cool? Because he's the only friggin ENT available to do her ears.

The ENT did nothing to re-assure me that it is a simple procedure. In fact when I did ask questions, he behaved like it was an imposition. Not like it mattered to him that a mother was worried about her child getting 2 surgeries in 1 week.  He is the one who asked if I had questions without explaining anything to me before hand.

BLARG GRRRRR BLAK SCREAM.

At least the Plastics Dr is nice.