The surgery ended up taking a full hour longer than anticipated due to the complexity of our little guy's clefting. In the end the surgeon stated that it was a success! Titus is very swollen in these pictures (one in the hospital and one in recovery). The bandage across his face is helping to keep the tension off of the stitches. We are not allowed to remove it or clean any of the blood off until after our follow-up appointment next Friday. He also has to where the elbow splints so that he doesn't touch his lip.
Titus had a rough couple of postoperative days. It turned out that he was having a bad reaction to the Tylenol and so once that was discontinued, he began doing better. His pain was actually minimal and now it doesn't even seem to bother him. Fearfully and wonderfully made, he is a testimony to that. Thank you all for your prayers.
The swelling has already subsided dramatically and I will get some newer pictures up soon. He looks much different from the pictures here. The surgeon also was good about giving us realistic expectations going forward. Titus will have his palate surgery at the end of the year. He will have to have a "nose job" around age 4-5. (They say that they concentrate on the upper lip now, because if they fixed the nose at this time, it wouldn't grow properly. So he will be a bit flat nosed for a while) His upper jaw bone grafting will come around 8-10. And he will likely have to do something about his under bite as well. And, oh yes, braces.
I'll try and get some new pictures up soon, and certainly after the bandages come off!
3 comments:
You certainly stretch us!! I had to create an AIM account in order to follow this but here we are! Little man, he looks beautiful. It is a long road ahead but He will never leave any of you or forsake you. I met a new lady at my book club who is a speech pathologist. She has worked extensively with cleft palate children--says they do alot of work together and get good results. Love you, Grammy
Glad to hear all is going well. I have been thinking about you guys a lot and wondered whenyou were actually going to update us on all that is going on in your lives.
What a beautiful, beautiful little guy! I'm so glad his fussiness was due to the meds and not the surgery itself.
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