Luci & Surgery #1

I apparently am the worlds worst blogger but I am gonna get this thing going again. Mainly so our friends and family can laugh at/with us as we try to act like we are totally capable parents.

Also I want our kids to be able to look back at the posts and laugh at some good memories...I will go back and edit out all the posts where they are making me crazy.

So...News of the Day: Luci is back in the operating room right this minute and having her first reconstructive surgery.

So I got up at 4:45am, and since Luci can't eat or drink anything, neither could Mommy. So it's a good thing that there weren't many cars on the road at that hour because no coffee and no diet coke...I was seriously a walking/driving zombie!

Then the whole process when you get here takes hours....still no DC.

Finally at about 9:30 I got a bottle of my poison and now all is right with the world...I can think and type like a semi-normal person.

We arrived, got all settled into the room, gown on, cartoons on, toys on the bed...then the nurs said that before the procedure she had to squirt Afrin up her nose, 3 different times, at 5 minute intervals. Geez, that was miserable for her the first time...so the second and third time...no way Jose! So we had to hold her hands and head and not so subtly make it happen...grrrr...really don't like this part.

See the deal is that our little Luci is a serious drama queen...like can fall on the floor, break into insta tears over pretty much anything or nothing...then in less than a second turn it off and go on her merry way.

Well first of all if you know me, you know I don't go for this it is ridiculous...but it apparently worked well for her in her past so..heck we all do what works so we have been in the process of learning about crying if we are hurt or scared and not crying BIG over things that are little. She is really starting to get the concept of not making a big deal over small inconsequential things.

Pretty sure we can just trash all that progress...the Afrin thing thoroughly pissed her off and she let us know it...two more times to be exact.

I am guessing she will be going back to the 2 gear motor...IDLE and HELL HATH NO FURY.

We will work it out...I think if any of us had to the stuff some of our kids endure that we would all be showing our less appealing side...way worse than they do.


So today Dr. Walrath is going to try and reduce the scar tissue webbing around her eyes. This will require him to take skin grafts from under each arm and use it to reconstruct the area of her eyes on either side of the nose. He is going to be aggressive about getting this small area done very well this first time and later on down the road he can further any other areas of the eye and nose.



This part is the hard one. Basically it will be a war to keep his work in place. The skin is naturally going to fight like hell to go right back where it was and he has got to prevent that during the healing process. To make sure he wins the war he will place a trans ASAP wire through the bridge of her nose ( she doesn't really have a bridge but that is where the wire is going).

This will be like a tension wire that will be pulling these two pads together on either side of her nose. This tension will hopefully keep the skin in place during the initial healing process. Then on 4/19 she will come back, get knocked out and they will remove the nose wire.

Seriously...can you imagine how not fun the next two weeks will be for her. I know how miserable I would feel if I had face surgery and then a nose wire! Let's just say they would have to drug me out of my mind for the two weeks, diet coke could not take that edge off!



Unfortunately they aren't really into drugging up little kids so - thank goodness GiGi (my mom) will be coming to town to take care of Luci for the next week while Mac is at school and Brian and I work. I am starting to realize that GiGi might be getting the short end of this stick. I don' think the little princess is going to be very pleasant...better make sure there is an arsenal of videos involving kittens, princesses and things that are pink.

This is just the beginning of Luci's summer of NOT FUN!

Like I said above, after today she will come back in 2 weeks, get the wire removed and get to just BE for a whole week and a half. The she as the surgery to put the two expanders in her head. She is actually looking forward to this...well the results of this...anytime you mention Doctor to Luci she says," Doctor give Luci big hair like mommy!"

She is really starting to be aware of hair...and likes it and wants it.

So she is happy about the results we hope to achieve. She has no idea just how not fun it is going to be to get to the end of that road.

That process includes putting in the initial two expanders under the hair growing part of her scalp, then twice a week for 6 weeks we go in and have them gradually filed with saline...gradually stretching them out into two large bubbles on her head. The once they are as big as possible they will remove the expanders and take the newly stretched scalp and put it where her bald spot is currently. This is supposed to allow her to have a head full of her own hair....which would make her very very happy!

So that is what summer looks like for Luci...woohoo!

Oh yeah...we also have to squeeze in some serious dental work under sedation...haven't even scheduled that yet!

Hopefully August/September will start being more fun, less doctors offices. We gotta take this kid to Disney world when all of this is done with! She will have earned it 20 times over!

So...she is back in surgery, luckily we get to go home today, should be home around 4:00.

I will keep updates on here and FB.

Also, big thank you to all our friends and family for the emails, texts, and FB messages...the support, prayers, and love really do make this type of thing easier...Thank you for real!

Tara Newton

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad