Surgery Successful, Recovery in Progress

Bethany has successfully emerged from Craniofacial Surgery and is now in recovery in the pediatrics unit at Medical City Children’s Hospital in Dallas!  The Tuesday surgery took a little over 4 hours to complete, though it seemed much longer with pre-0p, post-op, transit, etc.   We arrived at the hospital at 6am, full family in force, and started the process…

Our surgical team, including Drs. Hobar and Sklar, OR Nurse Janet, Anesthesiologist John, and many others did their amazing work swiftly and skillfully, and we received hourly updates from the OR via cell phone, which allowed us to post the updates to waiting friends and family via twitter and facebook.  By the time the third update call came, it was interrupted by the craniofacial surgeon, Dr. Hobar, walking into the waiting room.  As his colleagues were closing, he was already out there to share the results with us.

The most comical comment of the day?  When Dr. Hobar arrived, Emily commented, “Did he already wash his hands?” daddy: “Well, yes Emily.  He had on gloves and a gown and a mask while he worked on Bethany, but I’m sure he’s washed his hands.”  Emily:  “Good.  I bet he had slimy, goopey stuff all over them.” (said with a slightly devious grin…)

About two hours later, Amy and I were allowed to go see her in ICU.  This is what we saw (see photo).  Fully bandaged, you could see very little, but you could tell her facial structure had changed.  Her eyes were not yet swollen, and a couple times she opened them and looked back and forth at Amy and I.

In the hours that followed, her eyes would swell shut, which is totally normal.  By morning, the doctors would remove her bandages.  Once removed, her head would begin to swell in the abscence of the compression the wrapping provided, but this too is part of the process they had prepped us for.

Morning would usher in a new day and by around 10am, Bethany’s cathater was removed, her arterial line was out, and the drain line on her skull was removed.  With nothing but her IV’s left, and her vitals stable, she was cleared for her move off the Ped ICU to the normal Pediatric floor.  This meant that Emily and Dillon would finally get to see their baby sister, something we had hoped would happen.  In fact, we kept the kids in Dallas an extra night just on the chance that Bethany would move off ICU the next day.

Prepped by the Child Care team from Med City, and after seeing photos of similar babies in similar swollen states, the kids got to see their sis at about 11:30 on Wednesday.  Her eyes were swollen shut, her head swollen to what seems like twice its real size (think Will Ferrel’s Blue headed character “MegaMind”), and they could clearly see the stitched incision that now runs from ear to ear on her head, but they still wanted to see their missing third.  As you can see, they didn’t care too much that she looked, as they said, “just a little scary.”

It is now late on day 2.  The kids have returned to Sulphur Springs with their grandparents to return to school and a somewhat familiar routine.  We wanted them to re-enter something familiar, and we are so blessed with great teachers and friends in Sulphur Springs that we knew it is where they needed to be.  Amy and I will be staying here in Dallas for a couple more days and nights.  Miraculously, after literally having her head sliced from ear to ear and having sections of her skull cut apart, repositioned, and reattached, our baby girl could be heading home as early as Friday night.

God is good because it is his nature.  He doesn’t have to work at it, He just is.  Skilled doctors are skilled because they have dedicated their lives to getting good at what they do.  In the weeks that passed, and certainly in the weeks that are yet to come, I am glad that both of those facts are fact. I love and serve a good God, who has given life to us individually, to my family collectively, and to my daughter specifically through the hands of a gifted, talented group of caring professionals that shared their gifts.  We cannot thank you enough.

Thanks to all of you who have called, tweeted, facebooked, texted, written, given, loved, cooked, driven, and even cried.  You have shared your lives with us and allowed us to share our struggles and fears with you, lightening our load.  We are well cared for, and for that, we are grateful.  Now – it’s time to go hold that little bitty hand and thank God once again.

Be blessed.  Share Well.

See all the pre and post-op photos on our Flickr account.