Sick Kids #11 & #12

      Two appointments to catch you up on from the past two weeks. Our first was with Dr. Fisher to talk about the surgery and what to expect. We were informed by Dr. Fisher and his team that Lucille's surgery date would be for the first week in May. While this is great news, it was also a bit of a letdown for us as we were expecting to have her surgery during the first or second week of April based on when her nose stent was installed. However, Dr. Fisher is out of town for a week in April and he can't do the surgery the week before either as he has to remove the stitches the week after. So this means that we have a little more than a month of taping which sucks a little... but it is what it is.  We've accepted the fact and now it's good to know a date that we can now plan around. We will be staying overnight in the hospital for at least one night, maybe two. They want to make sure that she is eating following the surgery before she is discharged. Eating is an adjustment for cleft lip/palate babies because they no longer wear their plate after the surgery which means milk doesn't go down as well.  We were also told that following the surgery, Lucille will have on Velcro sleeves to prevent her from touching her stitches. We knew that this was part of the process but were a bit shocked to learn that she has to wear them for THREE WEEKS, which is longer than what we thought. We were told by one of the team members that this will be a difficult part of the process....for us more so than Lucille apparently. It's not something we're looking forward but something that we will definitely support one another to get through. 

     Our most recent appointment we actually made into a two night stay in Toronto with the whole family. We stayed in a hotel and did lots of fun stuff like going to the ROM and the aquarium...and a mandatory trip to the Jays Shop of course!! Lucille got to have her first dip in the pool, which she THOROUGHLY enjoyed. We also got to meet our good friends new baby daughter, Avery. 

    At this appointment Dr. Caro simulated the lip surgery by pulling Lucille's lips together to see how far her nostril has come.  She's confident that it's at the point that the stent didn't need to be adjusted.  She explained that they don't want to stretch it too far as they won't be able to shrink it back :) 

     We have another appointment in a few weeks to ensure that everything is going well. It's entirely possible that there won't be the need for them to adjust her stent for the remainder of her appointments leading up to the surgery.  Lucille is growing at a pretty crazy rate. We're fairly certain that teeth are on the cusp of breaking through! 

     In addition to our Sick Kids appointments we'll have some other pre-surgery appointments to have blood taken, Dr Checkup and a phone appointment with the anaesthesiologist. There may not be a lot to update on before the surgery, but we'll be sure to write something in the weeks leading up to the date.  

Take care, 

B.