Calder's Lip Surgery

We are almost through our first night with our new lip and nose...and this last stretch of good sleep has been 4 hours!! Pretty rough afternoon and evening though, all I want to do is take the pain and discomfort away. :(

Our day yesterday began early, as we left Murrieta around 4:00 AM to drive to San Diego. Check in was at 5:30, and Calder wasn't allowed to eat anything after midnight. We sort of expected him to fall right back to sleep once we were driving, but in typical "Jennings' kid" fashion, he stayed awake so he didn't miss anything! After talking to himself, chewing on his bunny from Grandma, and then crying for awhile, he finally slept about the last 10 min. of the drive, and then for about 30 min. after we arrived. We started the admission process, and got our "one size fits everyone but a baby", peach pj's, played in the pink padded crib/bed, and met the nurses. The doctors came to say hello, and just before 7:30, the anesthesiologist came to get the little man. Daddy was confused, and was still holding Calder, so he got lucky and walked back with them to the surgery doors, leaving mommy to pack up the things and go to the waiting room. Probably better in the long run...I didn't really have a chance to cry!

Dr. Sinow, the plastic surgeon, had given us a ballpark time of 11:00 AM, so up until then the wait was bearable. Then after 11, we started to get a little concerned...but such a meticulous surgery takes a really long time! They called for one of us to go back to recovery around noon, so I went back and got to hold him for quite awhile. They were still giving him oxygen and monitoring his vital signs, and he was very heavily sedated...so he slept on and off for about 45 min. to hour. Then they brought daddy back and we swapped. At this point, we had started to give Calder some glucose water from his bottle, which he gulped down well. So, daddy took over and went to post op to hold him, and mommy went down to the pharmacy to fill the prescriptions.

Ooops, didn't really say anything about the doctor's report yet. He spoke to Shane while I was in recovery, then came in to talk to me. The surgery itself was pretty tedious, as I mentioned before, but it went fairly well. Calder tolerated all of the anesthesia and medications fine, but they found an "unexpected" infection in his tear ducts. We have been wondering about this since his birth...he has had quite a bit of goop around his eyes on occasion, but then it will clear up for awhile. His eyes have always been really watery, and red rimmed when tired...but the doctor thinks now that there has been an infection for some time. ?? As a parent, I feel terribly guilty, but he has been to the pediatrician MULTIPLE times, and I can't remember a time when we didn't mention it, and she didn't look...needless to say, the plastic surgeon was ticked. Any infection during a surgical procedure isn't good, especially one so close to the "work area", so now we are also on heavy duty antibiotics, oral, eye drops, and drops for the ears, to prevent any of that infection from spreading. I guess this isn't the worst news we could have heard, but it was not "great" and we are now a bit more nervous about the recovery process.

So, back to post op...daddy stayed with Calder and I went to get the prescriptions filled. When I got back upstairs, the nurse was removing the IV and printing out the discharge paperwork! It was almost 3:00 by the time we actually left, but we felt like our questions had been answered, and we were as ready as we could have been to head home. Calder slept the whole way, and we were definitely glad to be home after a long day. I will continue this later, but I need to get this little man some more medicine, and see if he will take a bottle. What a journey this has been so far!!