Palate Surgery - Friday

We were elated to learn that Maelyn's surgery would be at 9am, rather than at 1pm on Friday. We knew that it would be easier on her - and on us - if she wouldn't have to go so many hours without eating.

Paul and I were ready to go at 5:15 in the morning -- bags in the car, car warming up, caffeine in hand. We gently got Maelyn out of her crib and brought her to the car. The hope was that she would continue to sleep, but that plan didn't work. Instead, she said a cheery hello to Paul and started dancing in her car seat, wanting the radio turned on! We were on our way and she immediately began asking for food. Luckily, we had brought with us a few new toys and they served as the perfect distractions. The Aqua Doodle occupied her for hours this weekend!

Once we arrived at Sick Kids we signed in and then went to the second floor to prep Maelyn for surgery. We waited for our turn in the playroom and Maelyn loved the toys and the kids that were there. A nurse then took Maelyn's vitals, changed her into her hospital clothes and then she took us to another area where the doctors would come and speak to us before the surgery started.

Sick Kids is an amazing place -- they were so prepared! When we got to the area where she would go into and then recover from her surgery, they had toys ready for her on the bed. This completely distracted her and although she continued to ask for food, it was easy enough to keep her occupied.

I was adamant that I was going to take her into the operating room. I felt quite strongly about the importance of not handing her over to strangers and having them walk away from us -- she has already experienced this too often in her life. I spoke with the doctors and they agreed -- so I suited up and then pushed her in her stroller into the OR.

When we walked into the room, Maelyn's brows furrowed and she didn't want me to take her blanket off her lap -- she kept tapping her leg, asking me to put it back on. I picked her up, with her blanket, and lay her down on the table. She was very brave, not crying once. The nurse put the heart rate monitor on her toe and she found the red light that shone through her toe to be pretty funny -- even giggling a little. Once they put on the gas mask, I just kept looking in her furrowed eyes, until she feel asleep. I must admit, I got a little teary as I was looking at her -- my heart was squeezing.

Then, the waiting began. The surgery started at nine in the morning and we were told that the surgery would last just over four hours. Luckily, Paul and I are the type to over plan and we were prepared for the hours of waiting. The waiting room itself was very comfortable and the volunteers were very kind. We got ourselves some breakfast, where we ran into someone we had met at an AdopTalk seminar recently. We watched a movie on Paul's laptop, read the paper, worked on Sudoku puzzles -- and the time kept passing. Maelyn's surgery, in the end, was over six hours long.

During the wait, Paul and I both commented that this was the longest we had sat still since Maelyn became a part of our family!

We first heard from the ENT doctor and she reported that they had cleaned out Maelyn's ears and removed the fluid. They were then able to put in the tubes and told us that everything else looked normal. Shortly thereafter we heard from the plastic surgeon. He told us that Maelyn's palate was fixed, but that the muscles were shorter than he expected, leaving Maelyn with a tight palate. This wasn't the perfect news we were hoping for, but we are crossing our fingers that it holds and in the end, doesn't have too many consequences for her speech quality. He also told us that they were able to repair most of her nose and the issue with her left nostril.

Breathing a sigh of relief, we were finally able to see our little girl. She was tented in her crib, to help with her breathing and to provide moisture for her mouth and nose. Seeing her for the first time after surgery, both Paul and I shed a few tears. She looked so frail and helpless. She was covered in her favourite purple blanket and was lying on her stomach, to help with the drainage from her wounds. Maelyn's entire body, but especially her face, was quite swollen. We saw that she had a stent in her nose and that both her nose and her mouth were very bloody. It was hard to see her that way, but fascinating to see the change in the look of her nose.

Maelyn was assigned her own nurse in order to help monitor her breathing very closely. After four hours in recovery, Maelyn was taken up to the constant care unit. This is an area where the kids receive one on one care for twelve hours after their surgery. Maelyn woke up for the first time once she reached the cc unit and Paul and I were struggling to get past the nurses to see our little girl. We were a little panicky that she hadn't seen us yet -- we wanted her to know that we were there. When she saw us, our little girl puckered up her very swollen lips and blew us kisses. I knew then that she would be fine.

I spent the night on a pull-out chair beside her crib. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very much. The nurse who was on shift that night was absolutely wonderful with Maelyn. She would help me pick Maelyn up to comfort her for awhile, then she would put her back in her crib to sleep. This went on for most of the night. When Maelyn would see me, she would wave her little hand to say hello. She always knows how to melt my heart...