What a Difference a Year Can Make
The last time I left off, Cody was 6 months old and through the first lip repair. We had a busy 6 months a head of us with his Uncle getting married and his Mommy and Daddy finding out they were expecting another baby. However, I knew we were done with surgeries for a while but the palate surgery was always on my mind. I was anxious for their first birthday to come but I knew that that also meant the palate surgery was soon to follow. I looked and looked for some personal experiences, but found most of what I was reading had to do with the lip. Our doctor told us what to expect but most of what he explained was the “worse case scenario” and I didn’t think we had to worry.
Cody and Dylan celebrated their first birthday on 1/23/05, as every little boy should, lots of presents and cake! Cody loved his cake! He also loved to tell everybody he was “1” – something his Auntie taught him. It was a great celebration with family and friends but the palate surgery was just 5 days away!
On the day of surgery, my husband and I, Cody, and his Gimmie piled into the car to head to the hospital. Cody’s brother – Dylan was staying with my sister and her husband. So it was not only hard leaving for the hospital but I had to also leave my other baby behind for 5 days. We arrived, checked in and waited until it was time. Luckily for us, Gimmie got Cody to sleep so we didn’t have that heartbreak when they took him down. Surgery took 7 hours -the longest of my life. Just when I expected to see the nurse come through the door to take us to recovery I saw the doctor. My heart sank! He quickly reassured us that surgery was a success but (that dreaded but) Cody had a lot of facial swelling and a little larger sized tongue. They had tried to remove him from the ventilator but he was tiring easy. So as a precaution they kept him on the ventilator and admitted him into the Pediatric ICU. Once we were finally able to see him my heart sank. That was probably the hardest part of this journey so far. I just wanted to ask why? Why was my baby who was just 5 days ago eating cake and playing with his brother lying there with a machine breathing for him? The whole room was just scary. He stayed in the ICU for 2 nights. They were giving him a sterilizing agent every hour for him to stay asleep so he didn’t wake up and start pulling things out. His nurses told us he was a fighter! The next morning he was removed from the ventilator but they kept him for one more night to monitor the swelling. The next day we were transferred to the pediatric floor. He didn’t really like being syringe feed so we tried everything in a cup. He wasn’t sleeping and we were having a hard time getting his pain under control. To make matters worse I was 3 months pregnant and ended up with the flu! With none of us getting any rest we called Gimmie back to the rescue. Finally on the 5th day he was eating enough that the doctors let us all go home. Once we got home, the recovery went that much quicker. I think he really missed his brother – they were so happy to see each other.
With the palate being repaired our next major concentration was Speech! His speech has taken off. We have several words, no glottal stops and no nasal speech. His speech therapist has been wonderful! At the one year team meeting all that was recommended was speech! We can handle that.
Cody is now 19 months old. He and his brother just welcomed a new baby brother, Tyler to the group on 6/27/05. Cody has taken charge and is a great big brother! His smile continues to melt my heart. We have all learned a lot in these 19 months but because of Cody we have had a great journey!