Megan's surgery

Megan had her first surgery yesterday (Thursday) and is doing great. Some of the things we were worried about ended up not being so bad after all--like not eating before surgery. She was allowed to eat until 3am and slept from then on until it was time to leave. So she was still pretty happy up to the point that she was taken back to the operating room. All the nurses were very nice and helpful. After she went back, we sat in the waiting room and a nurse came around every hour to give updates as to what was going on in the operating room. They first took a new impression of Megan's mouth to make a bigger obturator for her. After that, they did the lip/nose repair. When the surgeon came out he told us he was pleased with how everything went and that things came together nicely, which of course was nice to hear. He said that there will be many steps to this process but that this first step went very well. 

Once she was in recovery and she was "awake" and stable, we were taken back to see her. I think we were a little surprised at how different she looked. We knew she would look different, but I guess just didn't know what to expect. I held her for a few minutes and then we were off to her room for the night. On the way, the recovery nurse told us that she wanted to hold Megan but a volunteer came and offered to "help." She ungratefully said "thank you" and let the volunteer hold her but apparently was not very happy that she didn't get to hold her. 

Megan was attached to monitors and IV through the night which was a bit cumbersome but overall she did very well. We thought she would have to use special nipples and squeeze bottle or syringe but actually got to use her normal bottles and nipples, which is great. She ate pretty well through the night and was released this morning. She seems to be doing very well and is generally pretty happy (as much as you can expect considering the circumstances). She is NOT very excited about the arm restraints (as predicted) but dealing with it. Several times in the night I caught her with her arm straight up, staring at her hand very intently. She will have to wear the restraints for at least 2 weeks to keep her hands out of her mouth. We can take them off whenever we want to, to exercise her arms, as long as we have hold of her hands and keep them away from her mouth. We will be staying the night at the hotel here in Indianapolis and driving home tomorrow.

A big thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers!

Here are some pictures (beware that there is some blood)...

Ready to go to the hospital (getting in some final finger munching)

In her hospital gown (still pretty happy)

Waiting for the nurse to take her back 

First moments with Megan in the recovery room

Close-up

Sitting with mom

Hanging with dad

Having a snack