Post-op and Team Meeting

Gracie had her post-op appointment with Dr. Mackay today and they also had the rest of the team see her. Nothing like 3 hours in a doctors office with a 3 year old! She has a little infection on her lip. She is on antibiotics so it should clear up soon. Dr. Mackay is so great. He is so good with Grace. He likes her strong will and says she is brilliant. What Mom wouldn't love him? Grace can eat real food again but nothing as hard as a pretzel. With all of the hamburger and hot dogs she missed over the holiday weekend, she is ready to catch up. We will start massaging her lip several times a day help break down scar tissue. I asked how long we do this and they said a year!!! Yikes. Guess she will be learning how to do it herself too. Dr. Mackay will give her 3 months to allow the swelling to go down and to see what progress she makes in speech with her new mouth. If she is not where she should be he will do another palate procedure, pharyngealplasty, to work with the tissue in the back of her throat. This surgery has no major side effects and will not be nearly as big of a deal as what she has just endured. There will be many more surgeries but maybe only 2 more before she is 8. This is a guess. We are not anxious about all of the surgeries ahead but instead thankful for the wonderful care she is receiving and God's grace to deal with anything that comes our way. We will post a picture of the lip revision when the infection clears up. They did a great job on her lip and nose but it is still healing. There will be more cosmetic revisions in the future and they will get things as close to "normal" as possible but they are upfront in telling us that it will always be noticeable. We are confident that we can help her put her cleft lip and palate in perspective throughout her life. We just sang the song in Church that says... "He makes all things work together for my good." If we are going to sing it... we might as well start living and believing it!