Post Op Appointment

As some of you may or may not have heard by now, we had our follow up appt Monday in Iowa City for Zach's cleft palate repair. Dr Canady said all is healing but one area. He thinks that Zach got an infection at some point which caused part of the palate not to heal. So there is a 4 mm hole still in the palate, near the back of his mouth.

We are very thankful that the rest of his mouth looks great. We are also thankful for Dr Canady and his team--they are quite a group of professionals.

For the next 2 weeks we will continue on Zach's cup diet--we aren't quite done with the magic bullet yet!!! He will start on an antibiotic again--so we can continue eating ice cream every day;) He will also continue with the arm restraints. We go back in 2 weeks--May 10.

Right now we are asking for prayers for Zachary--for physical healing of that hole. Dr Canady says sometimes holes (he called it a fistula) can heal enough so that it's not significant (not affecting speech or swallow). He says usually they don't heal all the way closed. We are praying for God to do a miracle and close it all the way---so another surgery is not needed.

Zach has been quite a trooper through this all. Momma and Daddy were more disappointed about the news than he was! He's just going with the flow. Thank you all for your words of encouragement and your prayers. Regardless of the outcome, we will be thankful for soooo many blessings....


I look to the Lord for His help. Micah 7:7

Stuck In the Mud!

You thrill me Lord with all you have done for me! I sing for joy because of what you have done. Psalm 92:4

The latest on Zachary: Our big boy is sleeping through the night and is no longer needing pain medications. We no longer have to eat in shifts (Nancy would eat her supper in 3 minutes while she was liquifying Zachary's; Lonnie would eat when Zach was done--so he didn't see our solid food). Now we can sit down together and eat--Zach is not offended by seeing Momma & Daddy's solid food and utensils. He is eating much better---we don't have to bribe him for each bite like we did 2 weeks ago! Zachary has even been feeding himself lately. We take off one arm restraint and he uses that hand to feed himself with his cups. He has not tried putting his hand in his mouth when we have the restraint off. We keep a close eye on him, just in case he tries though!!! We head back to Iowa City next Monday afternoon.....only 17 more "cup meals" for Zachary, but who's counting?!! If all looks well he should be released to eat a soft diet with a spoon and to get rid of the arm restraints!

Those arm restraints haven't really slowed Zachary down at all. He can still throw rocks and sticks into the water, jump, run super fast and swing. He has recently learned about underdogs so he looooooves the swing.

Hope you enjoy these photos....you should have been there when he got stuck in the mud and Daddy had to pull him out!


Throwing rocks with Daddy on sturdy ground....



A slide into the mud with Daddy to the rescue!

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:

Post Op

Couldn't be more proud of my wife today. She was a great comfort to Zachary after his surgery and managed to get him to take his meds when he really didn't want to. Zachary couldn't have had a better mommy today or any day.

Thankful to be on this great adventure.