Surgery Date

Yesterday I called Shriner's and left a message to let them know that Mia's weight was 17 lbs 6 oz at her one year check up. I wondered if they'd want to wait until she's older and 18 lbs to do the surgery or if they'd go ahead and do it since she's close and already a year old. I was a little worried that waiting longer for palate surgery could result in speech delay, but also want her as healthy and strong as possible prior to surgery.


I got the call back from Shriner's today and we have our surgery date. The doctor feels that she's close enough to 18 lbs to go ahead with the surgery.  We will go in on Wednesday, August 24th for her clinic and pre-op appointment, surgery will be the next day and will head back home on Friday. The nurse said to be sure and try and pack on as much weight as we can and to keep her as healthy as possible. If she gets sick, they won't do the surgery and it will have to be rescheduled. She'll be the second surgery of the day so it will be interesting to see how she does with the pre-surgery no food and liquids thing now that she's a little earlier and more vocal about things. They will be doing a little baby girl's lip repair surgery right before Mia has her palate done. I was so looking forward to having this surgery over with, but now that we have a date and a count-down, I feel sick and anxious about having my sweet baby have surgery again and having her be in pain. I'm so glad it can be done when she's young enough that she shouldn't remember it when she's older.


So now the count down begins. 35 days until palate surgery.

Fibroid

The fibroid is out.  FINALLY!  :)  Here's the picture the doctor took of it.  Sorry if this grosses some of you out.  I'll post it small for those of you who are totally NOT interested in seeing it.  For those who are curious, like me, you can click on it and it will open a bigger version.  I  emailed a copy of it to my mom, who is a nurse and has a curious nature like I do and she texted me, "Wow! Mia's friend is big."  I responded, "Yeah, I feel like we need to give it a name and a propper burrial."  Too bad oncology has it.  I guess they are suppose to take some photos too, so we'll see how those turn out and if I get to see them or not.  There's a ruler along the bottom that shows that it was 6 inches / or 13 cm.  Schnikeys! 

I guess it DOES deserve a name for being so robust and for keeping Mia company for 9 months in-utero.  I remember putting my hand on it and being able to feel a strong heart-beat-like pulse of the blood beating through it.  Kinda creepy.  Thankfully, this fibroid does NOT seem to contain the hair and teeth my husband was hoping for (apparently some fibroids do - ick).

Introducing: Herman.

Sorry, I couln't make the photo any smaller, for those of you who are squeemish about such things.

I'm feeling like I got run over by a trian, cut in half, had a beater mix through my insides and then got hit in the back of the head by a 4x6.  I feel very bruised and battered inside for now.  The doctor said today that days three through five can be the worst, but promised me that it WOULD get better after that.  Luckily the nausea from a little earlier has passed without any surgery wrenching heaves.  Thank goodness!  Off to take another little nap to shore up some strenght before it's time to try and eat again and take some pain meds.

Day One - Surgery and Recovery

Thursday, November 11, 2010

When Mia first got out of surgery, I remember her crying in the recovery room and Zeus and I trying to comfort her and see her little mouth.  When she cried her sad little cry, her mouth was open a tiny amount and I could see her gums where her teeth use to be.  Instead of two little white teeth, I saw two little dash like slits in her gums.  Pobrecita, I guess what ever they used to help hold her mouth open made her gums swell up around her two little chompers.  (Luckily they have since reappeared!)

Immediately after surgery (around 10:30 am), Mia, not surprisingly, would not take her bottle. We had sugar water in it from the hospital - the same stuff that we'd given her the night before when she could only have clear liquids. She wouldn't touch the stuff. We finally got the okay around 4 or so that evening I had Zeus as the nurse if we could try giving her formula and see if she would take that since she wasn't taking the other. They okayed it since it had been hours since surgery and she hadn't thrown up or anything from the anesthesia. Thankfully she took it, but after only taking an ounce and half she was done. Then it was about 4 hours before she would take any more and then she would only take about two ounces. She was super sadness and even snuggling wouldn't help. As I said before, the only thing that seemed to distract her and/or comfort her was strolling the hospital halls. I don't know how many laps we did that afternoon and throughout the night between feedings every three hours. Throughout the night she was still only taking around two ounces of formula at a time.

Rocking with papa right after she came out of recovery.

Being watched over closely by mama and papa.

Mia's new little precious face staring intently at the bird mobile hooked to the hospital bed.

Mia resting inclined in her car seat (green blood pressure cuff on her leg) before we realized she'd have more room and be more upright in her stroller.

Unfortunately, while Zeus was snuggling Mia on his chest, she turned and bobbed her little head against his chest. It wasn't hard enough that he noticed or that she cried out in pain, but it caused the wound site to ooze some blood. When he laid her down, you couldn't tell yet, so we didn't realize it until she woke up from a nap. He felt absolutely horrible about it, but it was a total accident and she doesn't seem to have any problems from it.  You can see that the steri-strip has some blood on it in the picture below.

Mia's bed for the rest of the day and night and next day until we got to go home. Oh wait, it's still her bed - that and the bouncer.

Putting an outfit on for the first time after surgery - thank you back-up outfit from the diaper bag that happened to snap up the front so that we didn't have to put it over her head!

our sweet little one

Our serious little one was NOT a fan of the arm restraints.

Mia is such a happy little smiley soul that I was worried about her not being able to smile or then smiling and doing damage to her surgery site. So far, however, so good - no damage done. :)

Mia's first post-surgery smile was later that night, tough you could hardly tell because her little face is still so swollen that it ended up being just a tiny squint of the left eye and a tiny little movement on the left corner of her mouth. So cute, but in a sad little way!

I wasn't sure we'd make it through day one - hardest day EVER - but somehow we did.

Surgery - Deep breath... exhale slowly....

Man, what a crazy whirlwind week we've had!  On Tuesday we left Austin for Houston to visit with a cleft team at the Shriner's Hospital there in Houston.  They'd accepted Mia to do all of her cleft lip and palate treatment free of charge so we thought we'd at least check it out.  We looked up the doctors online and they both checked out great.  Shriner's paid for our hotel room where we stayed Tuesday night.

At the hotel - Mia checking out what papa's up to.

We went in first thing Wednesday meeting to have them give Mia a mini-physical and to meet with the plastic surgeon there. While waiting for our appointment we met a mom and her 12 year old son who was also cleft affected and she raved about Shriner’s and what great work they did. She had her son come over to show us his repair and you could seriously not even see the scar on his lip unless you really looked close.

Well, after we met with the surgeon, we felt good about it and decided to go ahead and schedule with them. They had said they’d probably not be able to get her in until the beginning of January, but then the plastic surgeon said that maybe they could try and squeeze us in in December if our schedule was flexible. We told them it was. The plastic surgeon went on to meet with the next patient and the care coordinator left to go and look at the surgery schedule to see when they could fit us in. We knew the surgery would be on a Thursday because the team is rebuilding after being moved from Galveston after the hurricane, so they have cleft clinic on Wednesdays and cleft surgeries on Thursdays. Well, a few minutes later the plastic surgeon popped his head in the door and said, “Would you be able to stay, check into the hospital today and do surgery tomorrow morning?” I guess the original patient had just barely tested positive for strep so they couldn’t do their surgery and the “back up” couldn’t make it so the spot for the next day happened to open up while we were there.

Our heads were spinning as we agreed and started the paperwork for admission into the hospital. Wow!  While we waited for the admission paperwork to get finished up we got to meet a little four month old baby boy who'd had his unilateral cleft repair done three weeks before and was in for his post op follow up.  We also got to meet and chat with a nineteen year old girl who'd been born with a bilateral cleft just like Mia.  She'd just finished her last treatment and looked really good!  It was nice to see different kiddos who were at different phases in the cleft repair process.

Reading with mama while we wait for all the paperwork to get filled out.

They admitted us to the hospital floor and then we had to just chill at the hospital for the rest of the day.

Here's Zeus in our room and Mia's cage-like crib for the evening.

Mia and I - when Zeus was holding her against him, somehow his visitor tag ended up on Mia's tummy.  We had to get a pic!  :)

Shriner's sees a TON of children every year, so they started doing a visitor tag ball each year.  They start with a tennis ball and throughout the months, people put their visitor tags on it as they check out for the day to show visually how many families they help each year.  At the end of each year they start over. 

Mia and I posing with our visitor tags and the visitor tag ball for 2010.

Family photo with Mia holding our tags, right before we helped her stick them on.

Chilling out on the patio and snapping pictures of the precious little face that would be changing so drastically in a few short hours.  Man we love this little one!!!  :)

Couldn't take enough pictures of her wide little smile that we would miss so much.

I was so upset that we didn't know we were having surgery and so I'd left the NICE camera at home!!!  Thankfully I keep my old digital camera in the diaper bag as well as a set of back up batteries that barely lasted until we made it home.  Lucky break that!

Giving Mia a pre-surgery scrub bath at the hospital - we had to do one the night before and one that morning.

Mia and I in her Christmas themed surgical gown the morning of surgery - all scrubbed up and ready to go!

Chewing on her toes one last time as we waited for the doc.

So incredibly sweet and happy in the morning!

Smiling with papa - sorry honey about my sub-par photography skills in this one!

Snuggles to sleep with mama while we wait for surgery time.

Following the nurse down the hall to the pre-op area.

Nervous smiles from mama and papa before they take our sleeping angel into surgery.

Zeus and I were absolute bundles of nerves during the 2 1/2 hour long surgery, even though they came in a few times to give us updates that all was going well. 

They gave us a pager that they said would go off when they were about ready for us to go into the recovery room.  We were told to have a bottle ready when for the recovery room so that she could eat right away if she wanted.  Well, we figured we'd have a second to run and make a fresh one when the pager went off.  We would have made it ahead of time, but Mia won't take a bottle if it's not really warm.  Too cold and she'll fuss and refuse it.  Anyhow, they came to get us BEFORE the pager went off, so Zeus went ahead into the recovery room with the camera as I tore down the halls to grab her bottle and run back. 

It was HORRIBLE not to be able to go straight back, but I had been the only one able to go back when she had her pre-maxillary tooth removed plus I'm fastest at making bottles, so off I ran.

Zeus's first view of Mia when he got back there, all wrapped up in warming blankets from surgery, and right before he was able to hold and comfort her.

My first view of my sad little red (from all the heating blankets) baby girl.

Mia was super-duper sadness after surgery and just continued making the quietest little sad cry you've ever heard.  She wouldn't take any of her bottle so we just patted and cooed and comforted and patted her and rubbed her sweet little head.  It was heart breaking seeing her that way and not being able to make it all go away.

Most of the first day she would hardly eat anything and would just sadly fuss.  About the only thing that seemed to calm her down and sooth her was to walk the halls with her.  We ended up doing that most of the afternoon and evening, either carrying her in our arms or pushing her in the stroller.

I'll post more later, just wanted to get the beginning down and let everyone know that Mia came through surgery just great.  Thanks so much for all of your thoughts and prayers on her and on our behalf.  The first few days were so hard, but we are thrilled to say that she's slowly improving bit by bit.  She finally slept through the night again last night and has even started cooing again and attempting a smidgen of a tight little swollen smile.  She's definitely not back to herself yet, but she's on her way there - yay!  More pics and info later, as it's just after midnight and I'm exhausted to the nth degree.

Quick surgery update

Just a quick note.  We wanted to let everyone know that Mia was a trooper through surgery, all went well and she is doing well enough today that we are being released and driving home from Houston this afternoon.  Mia had her lip revision surgery yesterday morning.  It was a rough day and night with a very sad little girl.  She hardly ate anything yesterday until night time and then started out very slowly, only eating an ounce to an ounce and a half at a time.  We did a lot of walking the hall with her in our arms or in her stroller as that seemed to be the only thing that could distract/soothe her.  She slept in her stroller so that she could stay upright to help reduce swelling and finally this morning she started eating better and at one point we were up to 4 ounces.  Of course, this last feeding we could only get 2 ounces down her again. 

Thank you so much for keeping her and our little family in your thoughts and/or prayers!  I will update soon with pictures and more information.  We finally found out today that there was one room in the hospial WAY down the hall that if you sit RIGHT against the window you can get a faint signal SOME time.  Otherwise, there is no internet in the hospital so I was unable to upload pictures or blog. More to come soon.  Hopefully all will go smoothly on the 3 hour drive home!

Surgery dates and family visits!

So, we got a call yesterday from Dell Children's Hospital and they have Mia scheduled for her lip surgery on November 10th.  It's so so so much sooner than I was expecting - not that mid November is a whole lot sooner than the end of November, but still.  My knee-jerk reaction was "NOOOOOOO!"  I LOVE her little wide smile and precious little face and can't imagine her looking any different.  Also, the thought handing her over for a three and a half hour surgery just stops my heart.  She's so little and so incredibly dear to us!!!  Knowing that this is in her best interest and that she would WANT us to do it if she could tell us so doesn't even make the thought of it any easier!!!!  The only positive that I can think of (besides of course that after surgery our first big hurdle will be behind us) is that we won't have to mess with the DAM NAM anymore.  Hooray!!!

On a more chipper note, my sister Nikki and her little family got in safe from Germany and arrived at our house Monday afternoon.  Sara and Sofia immediately wanted to hold "baby Mia" as they call her.  They are (usually) super sweet and gentle with her and it's so fun to see them together!  We've gone to parks and gone swimming and all sorts of fun things so far.  The first thing the girls wanted to do was to hold "baby Mia".

Monday:

 Sofia won "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe" and got to hold baby Mia first.  :)

Then it was Sara's turn - big smile!  :)

Next, they had to try on their Halloween costumes.

and then Sara had to hold "baby Mia" again

Nik and Claes went to run some errands and the girls and I went to the park across the corner from our house.  Sara and Sofia had a great time playing on the play ground equipment and digging in the ground with sticks.  They even found a little snail shell that we brought home.  Unfortunately our outing was cut short when Sofia got attacked by a horde of fire ants.  Sadness!!!!  She has bites all over her feet and a few on her hands.  It was truly one of the saddest things ever!  :(

 after baths, Sara and Mia chilled on the couch and watched a cartoon

when it was time to feed baby Mia, Sara and Fia both wanted to help and did a great job!

they built a boat and here's Fia sitting in it and rowing with the little blue sticks

Tuesday:

 Sarah holds baby Mia again before we head to Costco for lunch and some US shopping

Sara REALLY loves to hold baby Mia - even standing up, which we aren't quite sure will ever happen again... lol

Sara and Sofia love for baby Mia to be in her swing - this time Sara decided baby Mia needed some toys

so pretty much ALL of her toys ended up in the swing with her

Wednesday:

Sara checking out and comparing HER toes with baby Mia's toes  ;)

all three girls playing in my pop up school bus and having a grand time

then we went to Gatti Land Pizza place for lunch.  the girls thought that watching TV on the big screen while they ate was super cool.  here's the whole Lindgren family

Then we went to pick out pumpkins at a place by Zeus's work:

Sara quickly found her pumpkin

after some searching, Fia found hers too

Sara helped Fia carry her pumpkin to the wagon because it was SO big and heavy!

Sara and Sofia posing

When I asked Sara to hold Mia, Sofia insisted on "holding baby Mia's legs"

Mia and mama

my little cutie patootie

Mia on a pumpkin - being propped from behind with another pumpkin  ;)

one group shot before leaving

It was SO HOT outside - in the 90's so we didn't stay too long picking out pumpkins.  Sara picked out a little pumpkin for baby Mia and then we drove home to go to the playground and pool across the corner from my house.  Mia passed out on the couch while we were getting ready to go. 

she's started trying to suck her thumb and I love how in this pic she's got her fingers curled around her nose

Sofia and Sara had a blast splashing around in the kiddie pool while Nik and I chatted and laughed with Mia as we watched them

Papa taking a break from studying to play with Mia while Nik cooked us a DELICIOUS dinner of artichoke pasta - YUM!!! 

what???  you think "I" did all that drooling???  lol

Mia chilling in her bath - cracks me up because she locks her knees and it pins her in there  lol

Thursday:

Mia all bundled up in the DARLING cap and mittens Auntie Nikki got her

Uh, yeah.  Yesterday it was in the 90's and we were sweating like crazy, and today it was in the low 60's and breezy in the morning and we've had the windows open all day in the house.  Crazy Texas weather!!!

Sara and Fia climbing at the park under mama's supervision

Sara - far left, arms folded - was NOT thrilled to wait for her mom to finish pushing Fia on the swings before she could have a turn - lol

when it was Sara's turn, cool Aunt Darcie pushed her REALLY high and showed her how we use to push and run underneath when her mom and I were little - she loved it!  :)

Mia slept through the trip to the park

cute mama Nikki playing with her sweet Sara and Sofia