Day 5,6, and 7- Distraction

Savannah has been doing well. Her pain has been well managed and she rarely needs pain medication. She loves her antibiotics and is always asking if she can take her "yummy" medicine. She is in a good mood overall and I think most of her meltdowns are related to feeling hungry. We try to feed her as much as possible but it is so hard on a liquid diet. Her daily diet currently consists of- melted ice cream at least once a day, 2 whipped yogurts, and two servings of either cream of chicken or a cheddar soup. We also give her lots of milk with carnation instant breakfast and muscle milk, pedialyte, juice and yogurt smoothie drinks.

Coronado Bridge

The day after coming home from the hospital we stayed at home, did laundry, and tried to just relax. Yesterday we went to Coronado and walked a few miles while Savannah rode in her stroller. It is the only way we can keep her somewhat calm. Otherwise, she is running around like crazy. Today we renewed our zoo passes and wandered around for a couple of hours.

San Diego Zoo

This was filled in the Children's hospital pharmacy for a 3 yr old....

Day 4- Home Sweet Home

We are finally home. Last night was the best night of sleep since surgery. Savannah did not initially want to go to sleep but after a lengthy fight she finally gave in. All of us then slept for seven hours in row! It was more sleep for us than all the nights combined after surgery. We woke up at 7am and met with a doctor we had not met before. She was very nice. She checked Savannah's surgery site and told us she would be putting in our discharge/pharmacy orders.

Yummy cup of joe? Nope, just the most spill proof container at the hospital!

Yesterday Savannah told all of her nurses that she wanted her IV out. Today when it came time she had changed her mind and did not want anyone touching it. When she finally let the nurse take it out she admitted that it did not hurt to have it removed. After we packed up our room and received our paperwork we headed over to the playroom one last time to play for a little while. Savannah was very excited about the playroom and would have spent every moment of the last 24 hours there if she could!

Last picture before leaving our home for the last 4 days.

Savannah is definitely feeling better today. So much so that I am worried about how we are going to keep her quiet and "take it easy" as directed for the next three weeks!!! Our next follow up appointment will be Wednesday. Hopefully everything is healing normally!

Day 3- Full Tilt

Savannah woke up in great spirits today. She started by taking a few sips of juice and then was able to take her pain medication by mouth. The pain meds did not taste good so it took some bribing by the nurse to get her to finish. So now she has another stuffed cat, making a total of five stuffed animals given to her by staff so far! (2 bunnies, 1 bear, 1 cat, and a duck)

Even in the hospital she is a bed hog.

 Shortly after waking up she was visited by another therapy dog. Savannah was still a little lethargic but snapped right up when she heard there was a doggy visiting. He was a young pug/boston terrier mix and she loved getting kisses from him. (He is my favorite so far and I would have gladly exchanged all the stuffed animals in order to take him home!)

Newest friend

A little later Savannah went to the playroom and played in there for about an hour. We came back to our room to rest. At least some rest for mom and dad because Savannah still had plenty of energy! That was probably due to the melted popsicle that she had just ate.

Yummy!

Soon after that one of her doctors came in (a different one from yesterday). He likes that she is drinking but wants us to stay one more night until she eats something with more nutrients. So shortly after he left she had her first meal. Melted vanilla ice cream. She loved it and ate the whole thing.

Playing around with stuff that was in a grab/gift bag.

She is really hungry and doesn't understand why she can't eat normal food. When we go home Daddy and I will be starting Slimfast shakes so she won't see us eat very often. But here at the hospital it is regular food. She kept eyeballing my lunch today and asking to try it. So I let her lick my sandwich a few times since I felt guilty about eating in front of her.

Playroom Playtime

Later in the afternoon we spent some time in the playroom again and then spent some time running around outside. It has been hard to contain her and her energy today and I am looking forward to going home tomorrow!!! Hopefully we have a very uneventful eventing and night!

Running off some pent up energy!

Day 2- Recovery

We are still at Children's hospital tonight. Savannah overall is doing well and it much more herself today. The doctor came in this morning. He told us the surgery site looked great and was giving us discharge directions. He failed to ask us if she could drink yet. Soon as we told him that she hadn't had anything at all he said that we would be staying for at least another night.

Savannah and all of her new friends.

Savannah is still using IV morphine for pain control and also getting her antibiotics through her IV port. She had a pretty busy day here. First she was visited by a therapy dog named Hailey, then both sets of grandparents came to visit her. We have been reading to her and watching movies. This afternoon we even disconnected her for a while to clean her up, put on some real pajamas and then we went for a walk.

First smile after surgery.

She still has not been able to drink anything. She will take some sips but it just drools back out. Most of the work that was done was at the back of her palate and I don't think she is comfortable enough to try swallowing quite yet. Since it is almost 11:00 pm tonight, I am not too confident that we will be going home tomorrow either.

Outside enjoying the fresh air.

As I was typing this tonight Savannah threw up. It was only bile and some blood since there isn't anything in her stomach. The nurse came and we cleaned her up and they gave her some Zofran to help with the nausea. She is now starting to drift off again. I am hoping that she is able to sleep for a few hours straight tonight.For daddy and I, we have been sleeping in shifts. We have been sleeping for about 2 hours at a time and probably averaging 3-4 hours a night. Caffeine is my friend while I am here!

She didn't go very far but loved riding for a little while!

Day 1- Surgery Day

Surgery is over and we are now in a general recovery room. The surgery (z-plasty) overall went well. The surgeon had to graft a small bit of tissue to cover what needed to be done, but we are assured that it is a standard practice. It should not impact her future recovery.

Waiting to meet our surgeon and head back.

 She took the anesthesia well but did take a little longer than average waking up. When she finally did wake up she was in quite a bit of pain and required three rounds of Demerol while waiting to be moved to a room. She is also bleeding some from the nose and mouth but not nearly the amount of her last surgery. We are also keeping on top of the pain in hopes of minimizing the bleeding. The more she cries and is upset the more she bleeds.

Starting to wake up.

We were lucky enough to get a private room this time. It is much less stressful than sharing a tiny room with a crying/upset toddler. She is still in some pain and has received a couple doses of Morphine. When she is able to start drinking again she will start to get Tylenol with Codeine. She did take one sip of apple juice a couple hours ago but refused anymore.

In recovery with the puppy mommy bought her while waiting.

She is very clingy to me but thankfully daddy has been able to hold her too. Although she gets upset if I simply move out of sight (bathroom!). She was up for a little while and watched some Peppa Pig videos but has otherwise been sleeping all day.

Grandma and Grandpa brought her a get well balloon!

I appreciate everyone's hugs, thoughts and prayers. They mean everything to us. I am hoping we get to go home tomorrow but we will have to wait and see if we can manage her pain orally and if she is taking in enough fluids.

The view from our room.

Surgery Expectations

Just in case anyone wanted to know the details....

We had our pre-op appointment last week. We spoke briefly with the nurse and surgeon. We are going forward with surgery. It will be a palate lengthening procedure. The surgery is expected to take approximately two hours to complete. Afterwards she/we will be staying a minimum of one day in the hospital. (We learned from last time though and will be packing for three days!) After the surgery she will be on a pure liquid diet (water consistency) for two weeks. After two weeks and the doctor gives the okay she will be on a soft diet (smoothie/pudding consistency) for another 4-6 weeks.

Mommy's mesh back support = Savannah's new backpack

Nothing happening...

There is not much happening in the Savannah household at the moment. We are patiently waiting for surgery day to come. It is just two weeks from tomorrow. Later this week she has her pre-op appointment where I have my long list of questions ready for the doctor. I am so nervous about this surgery but I am trying my best to not let Savannah know that I am nervous. 

Do we pick a couch that matches our house or our kid?

In the last few weeks we have been sofa shopping. Savannah has been having a lot of fun trying them all out and meeting all of the sales people. She is also infatuated with electric recliners and loves to test them. We have not broken it to her yet that we are not buying recliners! We did finally chose one couch but had to return it when it wouldn't fit up the stairway to our living room. So the search continues...

Last week I took Savannah to her ENT (ear, nose, throat doctor) to check on her ears. We figured if she needed tubes that it would be best done at the same time as her palate surgery. But the ENT told me that her tubes have fallen out and the ear drums have healed nicely. He wants to leave her ears alone and monitor for now. So I agreed. Hopefully she doesn't need them for a while and it will be nice not having to worry about earplugs for swimming this summer.

Savannah avoiding me the only way she can while strapped in!