Update on Jack's progress...

Okay, I have been really bad on posting! Sorry, guys....

Anyway, Jack has been doing really well. He is now on a "fork-mash" diet: so anything you can mash with a fork, he can have. Which definitely broadens our horizons a bit. Now we can add overcooked pasta, potatoes, even some soft pieces of chicken to the menu. Hoo-ray!

He has not had any pain or discomfort since the week after his surgery. He has been back at school for 2+ weeks now and just has to do mouthwash a few times at school. He was getting bored with jello and pudding at lunch, so today I dropped off a couple Wendy's Jr Frosty's for him and became the coolest mom for a short amount of time, lol ;-)

Anyways, his next appointment is March 5 to make sure his palate has healed and then he can go back to a regular diet. Then he will start speech therapy again. We should hopefully know sometime around summer if the surgery did the trick, so we've got awhile to keep our fingers crossed. 

Have a great weekend!

Jack's Surgery Day

Sorry it's been nearly a week before posting an update on Jack's progress....but needless to say I have been EXHAUSTED. The only computer I have seen is at work to chart.

SOOOO...the day of surgery:

Well, we were originally scheduled for 9:20. Then 2 days before the surgery, I got a call, saying that his surgery was being moved back to 10:30. When we arrived, we found out his surgery was scheduled for 11:25. Not bad, I thought. I am a nurse, and I know that things pop up. Well Jack hadn't had anything to eat since 11pm the night before and was only allowed a little apple juice that morning. (And of course, his dad and I didn't eat that morning either). So we registered, went back to pre-op, Jack got into patient scrubs, and we waited.

Jack channel surfing at the hospital

Well the hours ticked by. Now, again...I understand how things can happen, surgery can be unpredictable. But we were hungry, tired, and bored out of our minds. So we were all a little cranky (and anxious). 

Finally, the surgeons came back to talk to us. Now let me give you a little background on them. The head surgeon is actually the chief of pediatric plastic surgery (I kept joking "nothing but the best for my kids!") and he is Asian (I'll explain why I'm mentioning that in a minute.) The other surgeon assisting him is a pediatric plastic surgical resident, and he is Indian (meaning from India, people, not Native American.) Neither one had much of an accent and my husband later said he started thinking of them as Harold and Kumar!!! Now, that is how I refer to them. Hopefully Jack doesn't catch on and call them that in person! But really, these guys are amazing. GREAT bedside manner, great with kids, and absolutely awesome with explaining things to us. Harold would explain things and then ask us if he was making sense. I work with doctors and TRUST me, not every doctor is willing to spend so much time putting patients and their families at ease. 

Anyway, it was time for Jack to be wheeled back to the OR and he started freaking out a little bit, which was hard for us. I can't tell you how it felt to know that your child is frightened and just watch him being wheeled away. It was terrible. 

So by the time he was taken back it was after 2pm. My husband, my father who was also there, and I went down to the cafeteria and ate, then we went back to the surgery waiting room. My dad left, and my mom showed up a little later. My mother-in-law was watching our other 2 kids, thank God for her, and we tried to occupy ourselves without going crazy. I got a call after 4 that they made the first incision at 3:08 and they still had a ways to go, but Jack was doing well. I thought it would feel like forever, but before I knew it they called to tell me he was doing well and was being moved to recovery. Harold came in to update us and said that he didn't have to do as much work as he initially thought, so his recovery should be easier than most, which was great news. 

We ended up seeing him in recovery since when they initially woke him up, he was scared and hurting and did not respond well, so they figured seeing our faces would help. I, of course, started crying when I saw him. He had a small tube in his nose to protect his airway, and a safety stitch in his tongue (also to protect his airway). But anyone who has had surgery knows that it is pretty miserable right after. We went up to his room and about 2 hours later, my mom and husband left and I settled in for a long night with him.

Jack's surgery

So for most, the New Year brings resolutions, possibilities, hopes and dreams for the coming months. For us, it includes surgery for our oldest son, Jack. It's less than a week away, so it's creeping up fast on us. Here's a little background on it:

Jack was born with a "submucosal cleft palate". What this basically means is that the muscles of the palate did not connect together correctly, so it doesn't block off the opening to the nose while talking like it should. It didn't extend all the way through the roof of his mouth to his lip, though, so it was not an obvious physical sign. When he started preschool, he was evaluated by a speech therapist who suggested he see an ENT (ear, nose, throat doctor). At the time of his eval (he was 4) the dr wanted speech therapy to take him as far as possible before looking at surgery as an option. So this past year, when speech therapy took him no further, we had him seen by several specialists and scheduled his surgery. It will be a 4 hour surgery, where the plastic surgeon will stitch the muscle of his palate together and extend it so it works properly and blocks the nasal airway when speaking. The big challenge will be his diet: he'll be on liquids only for 2 weeks, then a soft diet for another 2 weeks, then for the final 2 weeks he can be on regular food except for crunchy, sharp things like chips or popcorn. 

Jack is handling everything pretty well, and we are not making it our center focus this week. The kids are still on Christmas vacation, so we want him to just enjoy his time off. We invited some family and friends to come out to dinner at one of his favorite restaurants this Friday, I'm working alot this week so I can have the time off next week, and I really don't think it will sink in too much until Tuesday, the day before the surgery. I'm sure everything will go very well (this is a common procedure) but I am anxious for it to be over for him.

I will post updates on his progress in the coming months :)