Surgery # 2 - The Palate

Well it was time for another surgery. Luke was an old pro in being put out by this time but we also knew this one would be a little harder on him. It was still only a 1 night stay but having just gotten used to eating solid foods and putting foods in his mouth on his own, the recovery would be much harder. He wouldn't be allowed to put anything in his mouth or eat solid foods for 3 weeks. You know how much a 1 year old likes to put stuff in his mouth. Once again we were worried that he wouldn't like the fact that he couldn't eat breakfast in the morning but he again surprised us and was a little angel as we waited FOREVER. They had little cars in the waiting area so we tried to keep him busy. The surgery finally got underway and Matt and I started the 2-3hr wait again. I think it took a little over 2 hours and they called me in. This time was much harder as he was obviously uncomfortable and had blood coming out of his mouth and nose. I felt so sorry for the little guy. They sent us to our room fairly quickly and I got to carry him down which was nice cuddle time for me. Unfortunately, the nurse never called Matt to tell him where we were going so he was still sitting in the waiting room starting to think something had gone wrong. That day went okay, not near as easily as the lip surgery. He was pretty interested by that night in eating some pedialyte, we had to stick to clear fluids for that first day but he did take some formula that next morning. In the meantime, our family was undergoing some big changes. I had interviewed and been offered a new job back in Iowa, our home state. I had held off on accepting the job due to Luke's surgery. I wanted to make sure everything went okay and our insurance was intact before we uprooted everyone. So the morning I went to pick Matt and him up at the hospital, I called and accepted the offer and quit my job all in the same day. It was quite an emotional day for me. We really liked it in Illinois but had always wanted to be closer to our families so now it was time. We took Luke home and recovery went fairly well, he didn't complain much about pain and did pretty well with his arm bands. Since he was crawling it was much harder on us to make him wear them, so as long as we were watching, we would give him time off without those things on. Well, the 3 weeks came and went and we made preparations to move. In the meantime, since Luke wasn't allowed to put anything in his mouth on his own for 3 weeks, he refused to do it after the time was up. He also was a horribly picky eater. We couldn't even get him to pick up puffs to put in his own mouth. It was very frustrating but he did eventually get better. We had our follow up appt with our surgeon, got the green light and headed for Iowa.