Matthew is home! Praise God!

After a VERY long day and part of the evening at Children's Hospital (Wash, DC), we were finally allowed to leave the recovery/CICU. Our day started out early. TOO EARLY! We got a call on Thursday night from the Surgical nurse who said our time had been moved up. (earlier) His allotted time was changed to 7:45am for surgery.

We got to Children's about 5:45am. Checked in and started to wait. Didn't have much to wait for. They took us right back. Matthew was one of the first children having surgery for Friday. Trust me when I say, he remembered where he was. The first person he saw with green and/or blue scrubs, he was IMMEDIATELY scared and didn't want them to touch him. (he remembered from September 2007's surgery) With some coaxing, he allowed them to work with him. He fit those little surgery gowns MUCH better this time around. Still weighs just 29 pounds. Still 35 3/4's in length.

Then we got to meet all the surgeons. First was Dr. Murthy! He was ready to go. Matthew LOVES him! He says they are "buddies". Matthew gave Dr. Murthy a high five and Dr. Murthy's resident was with him and started smiling/laughing. Dr. Murthy turned around and said that gaining the trust of your patients and their parents was definitely a key for a healthy and mutual friendship, as you will see alot of the patients and parents for years to come. (cleft patients) I thought about it and I think he is right! We feel so at ease with Dr. Murthy! I totally trust him with our precious prince!!!!

Then, we saw Dr. Pena, Dr. Tate, his OR nurse, and the anesthiaologist (sp?). They gave Matthew some sleepy stuff to make him at ease beings he remembered things from last surgery and the nurses picked up on that. In 20 minutes? He was doing the bob and head duck that a boxer would do, except he was watching Jo-Jo Circus. Holding him in my arms like a baby was a treat. He just closed his eyes and a second or two he'd pop them right back open to fight off going night-night!! But.....he didn't last long. Those two oral liquids they gave him, that smelled like GRAPE, did their job. He was totally incoherent and eyes glazed over.............it was time. I handed Matthew over to the resident anesthiaologist and she carried Matthew to the OR. He wasn't with it. Trust me. He went. No crying. No nothing. HE WASN'T THERE. (I wonder if they give that stuff to the parents? Hmm.....*kidding*)

8:30am is when they came and said they were starting. We waited in the Family Surgical Waiting Room with a couple of other parents. And waited, and waited, and waited. Dr. Pena came out about 10 to nine and said her part was done. Everything went fine. About 9:10am, Dr. Tate came out and said that she took the tooth out. It was a VERY good thing that she did. They left another tooth behind that one (didn't know there was another one behind it) because of bone issues. But that the one that was removed was literally almost dead. *Thank God it's gone!!!*

From 9:10am to 11:50am, we waited. Dr. Murthy said it would only be 2 hours, max. I (Momma) was starting to worry at 11:10am. Dr. Murthy is usually RIGHT on with everything that he says. Well, it took a little longer than expected. Working with delicate tissue in the lip and in the nostril/nose. End result? Matthew has an artificial "bump" at the end of his nose to give it height. (which will be absorbed by the body to be totally natural looking in about 6 months) His flattened side of his nose is now TOTALLY MATCHED with the right side of his nose. It's VERY, VERY swollen!!!!!! It's bruised!!!! It looks horrible, but it'll get better!!! His lip? LOOKS SO DARN GOOD!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh. It's a miracle! Give it 6 months and I'm sure you won't even tell there was ever a surgery done on it!! (the lip) He does have sutures. Mostly on the top lip, both inside and out. He has sutures on the inside of his nose and on the outside. (mostly inside) His lip is bruised as well, and kinda fat. They said it will go down within 3 days. His left eye is swollen (because of the left nostril being worked on) and the left part of his face is bigger than the right, but he is doing well.

We had a REAL BIG scare about noon to 2pm. Matthew's temperature was going up and NOT coming down, even after having Tylenol 3 w/codeine. (for pain mostly) It was almost up to 102 degrees. They paged Dr. Murthy twice, but he was in surgery again. As soon as he got out, he'd be with Matthew. I made some calls to some folks and they started PRAYING quick for Matthew!!! THANK YOU GUYS! Matthew's temp finally came down. (don't know if it was infection starting or just the fact that he just had surgery, but it came down)

Yes, he is in some pain, but we are handling it. He will tell you if it's too bad. He ate a popsicle and about 4 apple juices RIGHT OFF THE BAT FROM SURGERY! Dr. Murthy was totally happy about that. For dinner he had softly scrambled eggs. So today he can start real food.

He's doing well. He's sleeping alot, but the Tylenol 3 will do that to you. So will some of the other meds he is taking. Matthew's ear drops are the WORST! He screamed when we put them in his ears last night! Literally SCREAMED! It was horrible, but he has to have them.

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Forgot to add this, HE CAN HEAR US AT A WHISPER! HE CAN HEAR! HE CAN HEAR! HE CAN HEAR! From the moment he woke up! He told us "too loud" when his vitals machine went off from his BP cuff falling off! AMAZING! THANK YOU LORD!!!

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I'll leave it here as this is really long. Will update you more later.

Momma Kooky