8/26/2002 07:30:59 AM|W|P|Christine|W|P|Once again we had to be at Surgicare at six o'clock in the morning. And yet again, I had not eaten since eight o'clock the night before. This is really starting to get old. Don't they know I'm a growing boy?? I don't like to wait for my food. We went through the same drills this time. They checked my oxygen and asked mom and dad a whole bunch of questions about how much I weigh and stuff like that. Then the anastegeoligist came in and talked to us about what would happen. He said that he would have to talk to Dr. Emery, but since they were only expecting it to take about fifteen minutes, he would probably just put a mask over my face to knock me out. So no IV and no eyes taped shut this time. About ten minutes later, Dr. Emery came in and told us that he only expected it to take about 15 to 20 minutes and then once I came out of recovery I could go home. I went back to the OR a little bit late this time. It was actually about 7:40. About 7:55 Dr. Emery came out and said everything went well and the incision looked really good. He told mom and dad that he had put surgi-strips over the incision and they would fall off on their own. Other than that all we needed to do was keep the Logan's Bow on and the No-Nos on for another two weeks. Once mom and dad heard I came out of surgery ok, dad went ahead and went to work. Mom came back to the room with me. The nurse told us we needed to wait another half an hour to make sure I continued to come off the anastesia ok. She also told mom that once I got home I could go ahead and have some apple juice for my first feeding, then a watered down bottle of formula for my second feeding and then back to my regular bottles for the third feeding forward. Since I am only 3 1/2 months old, mom has never given me apple juice. And she really didn't want to start with it yet. So mom just went ahead and gave me a regular bottle for my first feeding. I drained the whole eight ounce bottle. I was starving. Then I took a good nap. So everything went great and I was feeling good.|W|P|109302353442726247|W|P|Removing My Stitches|W|P|beanfamily@gmail.com8/20/2002 07:30:50 AM|W|P|Christine|W|P|Everything went really well with the surgery. We got to Surgicare at six o'clock in the morning. That sucked. None of us are morning people. Two days before the surgery mom had to wake me up at 11am and the day before the surgery dad woke me up at 9am. I was really getting in to the sleeping in thing. Plus I hadn't eaten since right before I went to bed at about nine o'clock the night before. After we checked in at the hospital, the nurse took my vitals. She put a little monitor on my toe to check my oxygen. She first tried on my finger, but apparently my fingers are to small. After some serious trying she finally got a reading and my oxygen level was good. The anastegolists came in and talked to mom and dad. He said that he would put a mask over my face first. Then once I was sleeping they would put in an IV and a breathing tube. After he left, Dr. Emery came in just to see if we had any questions and to remind us that it would take about two hours and then I'd be in recovery for a half an hour to 45 minutes. Finally, the nurse came in and took me off to the OR. At 9:30am, exactly two hours after I went in to the OR, Dr. Emery went out and told mom and dad that everything went well. He told them that I would be coming out of recovery in about 20 to 30 minutes. I was already starting to wake up. As they wheeled me out of recovery I saw my mom, my dad, my Grandma Cathy, my surrogate Aunt Necole and my Great-Grandpa Brunsting. It was so good to see everybody. It really meant a lot to me that so many people came to cheer me on for a good recovery. When mom first saw me she was prepared for the logan's bow and the arm restraints, but she was a little shocked by my red eyes. They had taped my eyes shut and my eye lids and around my eyes were all red from that. But, all in all, mom said I looked very handsome. The nurse wheeled me down to my room in Pediatrics. Mom rocked me in the rocking chair for a bit while the pediatric nurse took my vitals. She said I was doing really well. The nurse gave mom this really big syringe to feed me from. It only held 2 ounces of liquid at a time. Mom was supposed to gradually squirt the Pedialyte in to my mouth (all I could have at first was clear liquids), but I wasn't going for it. I wanted to suck. By that first night I could have formula, but I still didn't want to drink from that syringe. I would scream every time mom tried to feed me. And I was starving. I was used to eating 32 ounces every day and so far that day I had maybe 6 ounces. But I was still getting nutrients from my IV, so I was ok. I slept pretty good. Even that first night I only woke up once at around 3:30 in the morning. And I probably would have slept through that, but the nurse woke me up as she was taking my vitals. She also turned down my IV from 30ml to 20ml in hopes that I would start to drink more formula. When I woke up that next morning, the left side of my face was very very swollen. You could hardly tell where my nose ended and my cheek began. The nurse said that was pretty common since I was laying on my left side most of the night and I was getting all of that fluid from the IV. Mom felt so bad for me, but I was still in good spirits. The day nurse turned down my IV to 10 ml. She said that was lowest she would be able to turn it down because otherwise it could run the risk of getting blocked or not running properly. So now with less fluids I tried to drink more. But I still could not get the hang of that syringe. The nurse talked to Dr. Emery and he suggested we try a different kind of bottle. The nurse brought in two bottles specially designed for babies with clefts. The first bottle was a Mead Johnson bottle. It looked like a squirt bottle with a nipple. The bottle is made of soft plastic and has a unique flattened shape that makes it easier for my mom to get her hand around and squeeze the formula in to my mouth. The nipple is longer than a normal nipple and is cross cut at the end. Cross cutting the nipple makes it so I don't have to work so hard to receive ample amounts of milk. That bottle worked much better. At least I could get my lips around it and it felt more like what I was used to. But that bottle only held six ounces of formula, so mom always had to make me two bottles for each feeding. The second bottle they gave me was a Pigeon Cleft Nurser. It has a latex-free, cross-cut nipple that is easily compressed. The really big benefit to it's unique nipple, however, is the simple one-way valve that allows milk to flow only when I suck or compress it with my tongue. Even a "chewing" action will express milk from this nipple. Plus the bottle is pretty flexible so mom can gently squeeze milk into the nipple. The nipple's one-way valve prevents the milk from draining out of the nipple back into the bottle. Then when I suck or compress the nipple, milk is forced into my mouth. And this bottle held eight ounces of formula. Finally, with these two bottles, I was drinking and getting full on formula. That is what we were waiting for. The doctor wanted me to be eating pretty good before he would release me. So around 5pm on the 21st Dr. Emery came and checked on me. He said everything was looking good and I was eating well so I could go home. He sent me home with some antibiotic ointment for my lip three times a day and an antibiotic by mouth for five days. And, of course, I had to wear the Logan's Bow and No-Nos (arm restraints) for the next three weeks.|W|P|109302338353047422|W|P|Surgery Day|W|P|beanfamily@gmail.com