I Love My Lips!

It's a lip, it's a lip, it's a lip, lip, lip! Well, it wasn't Larry's lips but Philip's that got a complete overhaul today. Today was the big day of his 3rd surgery to correct the cleft in his lip and palate. It was a big day all around as Adora went to court this morning to meet up with Nehemiah's dad who was a no-show (boo hoo on him!). While Adora was in court, Muffy showed up to help out. Fr. Joel arrived home from work shortly before noon - just in enough time to load Philip and Nathan up in the car and get us all to the hospital. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Theresa picked up Miriam and took her to her dentist appointment, Adora arrived back home and Muffy took the girls back to her place for a couple of days. The hospital called this morning to ask if we could get there a couple of hours earlier than scheduled - NOT!

We arrived at the hospital and Philip went through the usual formalities. He sat around in a hospital-issue gown, 2 cheeks to the wind, while getting his vitals, Mom and Dad did paperwork, he visited with the anesthesiologist, a child care worker showed him the "medicine mask" and hooked him up with a handheld Playstation (he died and went to Heaven before he even hit the surgery table!) and the surgeon came in, chatted him up and wrote on his face, complete with his initials.

Dad accompanied him into the surgical room where some guy named Charlie talked him up until he fell dead asleep and they kicked Fr. Joel out. Then the waiting began. They called us about 40 minutes later (around 4:00) to say that they had just begun the surgery and all was going well. Three chapters of a Patrick O'Brien novel and too many episodes of Divorce Court later his doctor appeared on the scene with Philip's tooth in a little sample cup with a dollar taped to the top. The surgery went well, he said and all but one goal was accomplished. Here were the goals, just for the record:

1. Repair aveolar cleft in the palate (this involved removing the baby tooth in the gap of the cleft, taking a piece of bone out of Philip's left hip and using it to build a bridge across the gap caused by the cleft).

2. Close up the fistula (aka hole) running from the roof of Philip's mouth into his nostril (never again will he spit stuff out of his nose).

3. Revise the lip where a previous surgery had left a small peak on the top edge of his lip.

4. Remove scar tissue from a previous surgery.

Goals 1-3 were accomplished with flying colors. Number 4 will require a brief (10 minute) second surgery in a couple of months.

We were able to go in and visit with Philip in the recovery room where he remained for about 1 1/2 hours. This was also our first clue that the evening was not going to go as planned. We had brought Nathan along as he still requires milking every few hours and the plan was for me and little Naters to spend the night nursing Philip back to health in the hospital. This being flu and RSV season, no children under the age of 16 are currently allowed in the hospital areas where there are patients so...we had to take turns alternately visiting with Philip and bouncing Nathan on our knees (although Charlie did volunteer to babysit briefly so we could both go into recovery together at first..what a guy!). This also meant that Mom and baby were going home while Dad stayed behind to fill the nursing role....no skin off of Philip's teeth, he's definitely a Daddy's boy anyway. It was a bit problematic for Fr. Joel, however, when we realized the extra socks and undies I had packed weren't exactly going to fit him comfortably...

So here I am at home, very late at night, typing this out for all the world to read while Fr. Joel tries to get comfy in a pull-out chair and make Philip pee in a container (apparently he's decided to compete with his little brother, Bladder of Steel who, incidentally, has completely reverted back to diapers since his great pottying victory nigh 6 days ago).

Somewhere on my camera are before pictures. I'll take some after shots and try to get them up here on the blog.

But for now, I'm turning in!