Lip/Nose repair. Jan. 19

January 18th came with a severe winter storm warning.. well at least that is what the weather man was saying. Matt and I decided to stay in a motel in Salt Lake Wednesday night so we were closer and didn't have to worry about traffic and a winter storm. Due to the Outdoor expo there were no motels available. well that is except for the ghetto Motel 6. Matt and I left Wed. early afternoon. I was feeling real good about our decision to be in Salt Lake the night before surgery because it was UGLY outside. I think we maxed out at 25 MPH through the canyon. I was a wreck. We stopped in Syracuse so Matt and Kevin could give Tenna a blessing then busted to Salt Lake. By the time we got South of Layton the snow turned to rain. Needless to say we woke up to rain and sun the next day. Better safe than sorry.

Matt and Tenna chilling in the motel. Our microwave was bigger than the tv. Good thing there weren't any good games on.

We were to check in to Primarys Thursday January 19th at 1:30PM. We got there, got Tenna dressed and gave her lots and lots of snuggles.

I was an emotional wreck. I'm grateful for Matt and the sweet spirit Tenna has. She was so happy and cheerful while we were getting everything ready. Such a doll.

We got checked in, and taken back to pre-op. We had been there almost 40 min. when a nurse came and told us our O.R was about an hour behind. No biggie other than I was worried it would be a long hour with a starving baby. It was long, and turned into closer to 2 hours. I didn't mind waiting though. I love that Dr. Morales is a perfectionist and he takes his time.

The nurse came and gave Tenna some medicine to raise her heart rate. I can't remember what it was called, but she warned us it was normal for her little cheeks to go bright red. pretty soon her entire body was turning a reddish purple color. I'm so grateful for the warm blankets they have. I'm pretty sure Tenna loved them too. She just stayed sleeping in my arms the entire wait. Tender mercies.


When Dr. Morales came out we asked if we could grab a quick picture. He was so excited and took Tenna from me. He is so sweet and cute with her. Dr. Morales and Dr. Williams. We are sure grateful for these two men. Dr. Morales had just taken the tape off Tenna's lip so she wasn't very happy. Her poor cheeks were so raw they just bled.


POST OP DAY ONE

After handing Tenna over the the Anesthesiologist Matt and I made our way to the waiting room. I think I had cried all the tears I had the days leading up to surgery. I just felt numb as we walked away this time. It wasn't any easier than the first time. I think I just learned to turn off all emotion.

We have some great friends that left us a bag of goodies at check in. I am forever grateful for them. I love having a go to person who is just a couple steps a head of us. Matt and I enjoyed snacking and reading/playing games.

I think it helped the first hour fly by. The second hour seemed to get the better of me. I became a ball of nerves. The nurse told us Dr. Morales would be back to visit so we went into a private room it means a lot to Matt and me that he respects our privacy and doesn't just tell us about surgery for the entire waiting room to hear. Dr. Morales came and talked to us about 2 and a half hours after we handed our baby over. He mentioned things ended up going well....BUT During the procedure he wasn't sure it was going to have a happy ending. He wasn't pleased with the way things were going. Tenna's left side lip and nose didn't have enough tissue. He mentioned that things weren't laying the way he had hoped and he ended up having to pull some tricks out of his bag to make her nose look decent. I had this vision of Tenna having a lot of tension on her lip/nose area. I'm so glad Dr. Morales is so talented and a miracle worker!!!

As our Dr. left he told us they would call us back in about 5 min. Matt and I cleaned up our stuff and I was sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for the phone to call the the nurse to tell me it was my turn to get my baby. 5 min went by, 10 min went by.. phone calls came and other parents were called back. My heart was aching. WHY was it taking so long??? After 30 min. the sweet nurse who had been watching and waiting with me told me she was going to call back to PACU to see why there was a hold up. I wanted to puke. When you think 5 min and wait 30+ your mind tends to wander to worse case scenarios... The nurse called, and then walked over to me. She walked down the hall with me. She started crying and I started crying. I had NO clue what was going on. She just said to me, sometimes these little ones have a harder time waking up. When I got back to Tenna's bed I was SO relieved that everything was OK. I don't really know why it took us so long, but she was stable and screaming for the Momma when I got to her. I snuggled her and soon we were off to our room.

I wanted SO bad to clean up the blood, but we had strict orders to leave it alone. I hated seeing the blood, it made it seem more painful for some reason. The metal guard around her lip is called the Logans Bow. It is to help protect her lip. She is sure a trooper! This is a couple hours after we were taken to our room. Which was a shared room. Story about that later...

My parents came down the night of surgery and brought big brother to see his sister. He wasn't so sure what to think. He is so protective of his sister. I love watching him with her.

If there is ONE thing I will complain about it will be the shared room factor. I hated sharing a room. With Tenna's first surgery we ended up having to stay the night, but we were given a private room. This time around we weren't so lucky. Our room was by the door, luckily. It was nice that the bathroom was right across the hall.. Our "roomies" had been in the PICU for 4 days. They had a sweet little boy that had been very sick and had almost lost him. He was cute, and the parents were nice... but I could hear them eating there chips at midnight... eating their chips and getting it on. NO JOKE. Matt and I laughed so hard we were crying. We almost had to leave our baby in the room and walk down the hall so they didn't hear us laughing..

I didn't love the nurses coming in every hour, turning on their lights... then coming in and turning on our lights. I'm sure they didn't like sharing with us either. We had a pretty upset baby for a while. That first night was the longest. I don't think I slept for more than an hour total.

Our roomies were released around 11 and I was hoping we could be given our pink ticket and out by noon or so. Tenna had been having a pretty hard time eating, so as luck would have it we didn't get out of there until about 8:30PM BUT that is way better than staying another night.

POST OP DAY 3

Tenna spent a lot of time sleeping. Best medicine ever, in my opinion. We did learn that it was best she didn't go longer than 5 hours without her meds. I don't like seeing my baby doped up, but I hate even more seeing her cry out in pain. Matt and I decided it was just better to giver her the full dose for as long as needs be. No rush in taking it away. If it were me I'm sure I would want the full dose until the entire bottle was gone. Good thing she is lots tougher than me.

POST OP ABOUT ONE WEEK.

We took this picture 10 days after surgery, right before we removed the yellow gauze. For some reason, maybe due to the screaming child, but I couldn't find a picture after we removed it. We are pretty pleased with the way things look.


The lip/nose surgery was an emotional rollercoaster. We are so glad it is behind us. June is our next scheduled surgery. Soft palate repair.

Side note: Tenna is on her second set of ear tubes and still won't pass a hearing test on her left side. No biggie we know she can hear. Just a little frustrating the "test" says different.