Surgery Details

We are through our first major surgery!!! It went well. They let me take her back since she did not want to go with the nurse. I held her in the OR while they put a mask on her to put her to sleep. The OR was huge. Like five times my living room and with a dozen people busily getting prepared for Gracie Mei. Oh the care our children receive in this country! From a worldy perspective so few children are so fortunate. Four hours after she went in they called and said she was waking up and we could come back. She was a little scared but calmed down and slept a lot. We moved to our room and she has done great drinking and eating pureed food. Her palate is lengthened and the muscles lined up in a way that will help improve speech. The palate was the most important part so we were thrilled to hear good news about that. He closed most of the hole in her palate which will set her up for a bone graft surgery around age 8. He closed the hole in the base of her nose which will also help greatly with speech since she will not have air escaping from her nose. He said the lip revision was tough. Her repair in China soon after she was born was not a good one. He attached the muscles in her lip so now she can make the "W" sound and pucker up! Watch out boys!!! She has a lot of swelling so it is hard to see what it will look like. They say it was difficult and it will never be perfect but they say it is SO much better. To me, she looks different and I have had to hold the tears back about that. I know it sounds strange but all of you Mommy's out there with kids with clefts know just what I mean=) They gave her nose a little more definition. More nose work as she grows. They continue to say she has more ahead of her but they do not know when because every kid heals differently. As she gets older it also depends on how comfortable she is with the way everything looks and what she wants to have done. She has stitches on her lip and steri strips covering the other stitches aboe her lip. Some swelling. I don't think the kids will be too scared but scared enough to be gentle I hope. As we close out this day I think of all the wonderful care Grace has received and how she has been covered in prayer by so many people who love her. How can I be anything but thankful!