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.