37.365 Kaylin's surgery

As most of you know, Kaylin was born with a cleft lip and palate. She had surgery at 3 months old to close her lip and again at almost 1 year to close her palate & get ear tubes. She had a second set of tubes put in her ears at 19 months, but that is the last surgery she had. She was scared of the upcoming surgery and would start crying any time she heard the word. Of course, she's overly dramatic very sensitive anyway and tends to cry at very small insignificant things as well. She has yearly check-ups with her surgeon, who we saw in November. At that time he told us that he wanted to do surgery to try and repair her left nostril, which was not symmetrical with the right one. He told us he likes to get this done before they start 1st grade, because that's when the teasing tends to pick up. So, after talking with him and determining that surgery should be fairly simple and a fast recovery, we scheduled it for February 6th, as that was a Staff Development day, so Kaylin was out of school. That would give her the weekend to recover, though Dr. F told us that she should be fine by the next morning.

So, we made our way to Dallas nice and early (I almost said bright, but it was still dark out) for her surgery. It was scheduled for 9am, but we were to check-in at 7am and we are at least an hour from the hospital. We got there early, got her checked in and settled, talked with the nurses, she got to watch tv for a while and then it was time for the goofy juice. Goofy juice is Versed, with sno cone syrup added to it, because it apparently does not taste good AT ALL. And apparently, the sno cone syrup doesn't help nearly enough. She must have scrubbed her tongue with a wet washcloth for a good minute after taking it. Once the goofy juice took she started acting goofy and we put a Hannah Montana DVD in until they were ready for her. She kept trying to sit up and couldn't because of the goofy juice, so she kept telling us they were holding her down. I don't think we even got 5 minutes into the DVD before they came to take her back. The nurse told us we could call and check on the progress and how Kaylin was throughout the surgery, about every 30 minutes.

After Kaylin went back, Jeremy and I went downstairs to have breakfast before settling into the waiting room. We were told the surgery would likely take about 2 hours. We had breakfast and then headed back to the waiting room. The first 30 minutes had passed, so I called and the nurse let me know that she went to sleep fine, was nice and warm and the surgery was going great. Some more sitting, waiting, and the same answers from the nurse, everything is going great. About an hour and 45 minutes after, the surgeon comes out to get us, they are done. We walk back to recovery and Kaylin is still sleeping. Dr. F told us everything went great and he had already compared her pre-surgery photo to her nose now, and he was happy with the results. Kaylin started to move around and open her eyes a little. Then she started crying and the nurse told us that Jeremy or I could climb in the bed with her to cuddle her. We asked her who she would prefer, she picked mommy, I climbed in and cuddled her. She complained about the pain 3 times in about an hour and each time the nurse added drugs to her IV. After being in recovery for an hour we were moved to her room where she was given tylenol and continued to sleep for about an hour and then she was discharged.

She had 1 dose of motrin when we got home and that was the end of the pain management! I asked her all weekend if she hurt and needed any motrin and she always told me no. Can you believe that?! She was well enough to go back to school on Monday.

Kaylin right after we got settled into her room. See her hair? I guess the nurses braided it and then put the braid up after she got back there. And they did it with office rubberbands. Dude, you could have just asked me to do that, with good hair bands. Yeah, I didn't even try and remove them. Just cut them out when we got home!

This is Beary. He was given to her by the nurses before her very first surgery. He's been through every surgery with her thus far. Yes, he literally goes into surgery with her. He also had a cleft lip repair, see his stitches under his nose? That's why they give him to their patients! In recovery, she actually woke up at one point because he dropped out of her arms. They sleep together every night!