First Jaw Distraction Complete!!

Faith's first jaw distraction is finally over!  Sorry it took me so long to post since her surgery on April 16th, but you all know how busy life is.  Faith and I flew to Indianapolis on April 15th, drove to Cincinnati and got settled into our hotel.  The next morning we went to the hospital and her surgery happened as planned, about an hour or so to take out the hardware and check her airway (bronchoscopy) and then she was in recovery for about an hour and then we went back to the hotel.  Faith did great and was very happy as soon as we got back to the hotel and tucked her in bed with her doll, a bottle of water and cartoons!  The next day we went to see Dr. Gordon and his assistant Renee in his office and then drove to Indiana to visit my cousins and aunts (April, Lori, Linda and Peggy plus April's son Wesley who Faith had a great time playing with) and then flew home on Saturday despite the foot or two of snow Denver got on Friday!  

The results of her first distraction are good, but not a hit "out of the park" as Dr. Gordon had hoped, but even so, she gained about an inch of bone where she had none of the left side and her lower teeth are about 1-2 centimeters further forward than before the surgery which Dr. Gordon was pleased with and thinks he will be able to do his traditional distraction in 2-3 years, before she starts school.  We've always known she would need more distractions in the future we just don't know how many.  My guess is she will at least need 3 or 4 including this one behind us.  The last surgery is done when they are full grown (maybe around age 16-18) but more could be needed in between if her airway becomes compromised after she is decannulated (when her trach tube is removed).   The biggest success from this surgery is that we didn't have to do a bone graft (as of yet anyway) and there were no external scars!

You can really see a little chin now where there was almost nothing before.  The most exciting thing is to see Faith playing with her tongue and touching her front teeth, she loves it!  Below is a slideshow I put together tonight, combining three events, Easter, Faith's final surgery and Fred's birthday, which was last Monday.  We just had dinner and cake with the kids and I gave Fred a day off from his usual chores so he could just sit around and enjoy watching some games and hanging out with his FIVE kids!! :)  Fred is such an awesome dad and he does so much to run this house every single day.  He really deserved a day off and I enjoyed taking care of everything for a change!  

Enjoy and I will post some final before and after pictures soon.  

Best to everyone and as always thanks so much for reading the blog and your comments, we love getting them.

Robin and family