Wyatt's Lip & Nose Repair (and tubes too!)

Wyatt's second surgery went great. He had a lip adhesion in February to prepare for his lip and nose repair and the actual lip and nose repair was yesterday. From what we can tell Dr. Lacey did a fantastic job. Here is the story of Wyatt's second surgery:

Wyatt's surgery was scheduled for noon and we were told to arrive at the hospital at 10 a.m. We pulled up to valet parking at the door with the giraffe just like last time. I really appreciate how easy they make everything and how kid friendly they are at the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital. I know it's a children's hospital but the experience is still new to me and I think it is very cool. (I had a near miss with a tot on a trike in the hall on my late night run to the vending machine.)

Once inside we visited registration, security and then headed up to Children's Surgery and pre op. We got Wyatt all ready for surgery and then had to wait until it was time to bring him to the operating room. Waiting in pre op was probably the worst part of the day. Wyatt did great but Mommy and Daddy were anxious about surgery and trying to keep him distracted and entertained (he couldn't eat anything after 8 a.m.). We waited almost 2 and a half hours. I had lots of time to take pictures.  

 

 

While we waited the doctors and nurses stopped in to introduce themselves. Dr. Lacey autographed Wyatt's cheek again.

He was awake most of the time but fell asleep just before they were ready to take him to the operating room.

Soon it was time to go. We walked with him as far as we could go and then said our goodbyes.

 

 

We were told it would take approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes for the lip repair and tubes. It was 12:21 when he went in so we decided to grab lunch in the cafeteria and walk around the hospital a bit. When we got back to the children's surgery waiting area at 1:20 I was getting ready to pump in one of the consultation rooms when the assistant found me and said I had a call from the operating room. Mike wasn't with me and a million thoughts were running through my head. Luckily, all was well they were just calling to let us know they were just getting started because it took a while to get everything set up and Wyatt to sleep.

Then we started another period of waiting.

We anxiously watched the monitors that updated us on any changes in Wyatt's status. We weren't expecting to hear from anyone for at least a couple of hours but after only one hour (at 2:20) Dr. Lacey came out and said he was done and everything went well. He went over a few basics and made a comment about Wyatt's nose looking "totally different." My focus had been on getting Wyatt through surgery and I forgot about the impact this surgery would have on his appearance. Dr. Lacey's comment reminded me of this. We were anxious to see him but they were prepping for Dr. Meyer to do her part next, put tubes in Wyatt's ears.

At 3:17 Wyatt was moved to recovery. Hooray! We couldn't wait to see him.

I mentioned this in my post from Wyatt's last surgery but seeing my baby in recovery is incredibly difficult. Wyatt was sleeping when we first saw him. They had just given him some morphine because he was having a pretty hard time. He didn't sleep for very long and woke up confused and in pain. It was hard not being able to comfort him.

We weren't even able to hold him because they were going to be moving us soon and didn't want us to get too comfortable. :( It was horrible. They ended up giving him another dose of morphine and some Tylenol while we were there. He did take a little Pedialyte. After about and hour and a half in recovery we headed to his room. The nurses were great in getting us settled in. They ordered some toys and a swing to help make Wyatt comfortable. He fussed and cried quite a bit. They gave him some more pain medication and Tylenol. We did see a few moments of our happy, smiley Wyatt. His face was swollen and his lip and nose are bruised.

The swelling has gone down in his face and eyes but his lip and nose look worse today. I will spare you some of the more gory pictures.

He is having a hard day today. You can tell he is in pain and he isn't eating much. We have to keep a close eye on him so he doesn't do anything to accidentally hurt himself. He has his no no's again but is having a harder time being restrained this time around. I think this is because he is older, more active, and has new skills he wants to practice. He is frustrated he can't put his fingers in his mouth, play with his toys or roll over.

His lip and nose look great and we are anxious to see what he will look like as the swelling goes down and he begins to heal. Mike and I talked about the ever changing face of Wyatt. It is like we get to meet our baby for the first time over an over again. I feel like he looks so different this time. Even Brenda (Great Grandma) made a comment about it. We both think he looks older.

When I reflect on how things have gone these past two days I think some things were easier this time and some things more difficult. We were more familiar with the hospital and the process and that helped a ton. The difficult part is this surgery has been harder on Wyatt. Right now we are focused on doing the best we can to keep him comfortable. We are holding him quite a bit and trying to distract him with toys. He slept good last night and has taken a few short naps today.

We will have a post op appointment with Dr. Lacey next week and Dr. Meyer in 6-8 weeks. His next surgery will be his palate repair. We will be able to get the date on the books soon. It will be sometime between 10 and 12 month old.