Recovering From Surgery

We had been preparing Zachary for his cleft surgery for months. We told him that "the doctor is going to fix the hole in your mouth". Most of you probably have never even seen what his cleft palate looked like before surgery. Here is a shot:

It's pretty amazing to see what it looks like now. You'll have to check it out the next time you see him. It still looks pretty gory after surgery so we won't post a current shot; it heals more and more each day.

A lot of you have been asking how we are all doing after surgery. All things considered, we are doing well. We think Zach has a pretty good understanding of what's going on with his mouth and why he is drinking his food again and wearing arm restraints. The first night home he refused to eat/drink anything--he was just plain mad. Each day since then he's gotten more cooperative.

The first few days after surgery it was very quiet around the house. Zachary must have had a strange feeling in his mouth, along with some pain. He didn't swallow his saliva much--he held it in his mouth until it ran out. He couldn't do much talking with a mouthful of saliva! Now he's back to chatting away. He's just a bit tired and whiny but nothing like he was initially after his lip surgery. The biggest struggle has been getting him to take his antibiotic and pain medicine. Since he won't take it by the syringe like most kids do, we have to try to hide it in his food. Of course that makes the food taste nasty, so he doesn't want to eat. We have discovered that ice cream masks the taste of the meds, so we are enjoying shakes twice a day! Every now and then he asks to eat crackers or apples, or to use a plate or a spoon. It's sure hard saying no to those requests, but only a few weeks to go on this cup diet. We go back to the surgeon on April 26. Can't wait!

Zach's having a hard time staying asleep at night---he'll get himself rolled onto his stomach but then can't roll back over since his arms are in the restraints. We get up a few times a night and roll him back over and cover him with his favorite blanket.

Each day we see more sparkle back in his eyes......this weekend he's been running, jumping and playing--with close supervision of course. Thank you all for your prayers. Keep them coming!

Here are a few more shots of us waiting for surgery: