Cleft Palate Surgery

The day finally came. I could barely sleep the night before, but it was finally here. 9 months in the waiting and it was time.

We woke up and headed out around 6:30am. We had to be at the hospital by 8:30am and the hospital was downtown and we knew we would be hitting traffic. So we left with plenty of time to get there and even stop by Chick-fila. This mama bear needed some chicken minis and a DP, pronto!

We got to the hospital around 8am with plenty of time and headed to admitting to get checked in. Once we were checked in, they sent us to the waiting room to be called back for pre-op along with everyone else who was there for surgery that day.

Ugh. This part was terrible. Raegan hadn't eaten since 11:30pm the night before and she was a bit cranky, but not too bad. We were waiting for about 2 hours when they finally called us back. They weighed her and our doctors came back to talk to us one of time, which was so nice for this anxious mama's heart.

Our ENT came in to discuss the bronchoscopy they would be performing to check her airway before doing the cleft repair. Due to her PRS (Pierre Robin Sequence) diagnosis, they worried that her airway would be difficult for them to intubate and possibly extubate her after surgery. They said she could possibly need to stay intubated if she couldn't handle breathing on her own. Fortunately, her air way was considered "normal". Thank the Lord! He came out and updated us during surgery and it was such a weight lifted.

 She was all smiles for the most part. Always her sweet self with a little tad of cranky, but I would have been too if I hadn't eaten in 12 hours.

They took her back to the OR and she went willing to the nurses. Of course. She loves everyone. Kyle and I lost it. I couldn't keep it together. I couldn't protect her anymore. I wouldn't be there when they put in the IV or when she woke up from surgery. It broke my heart.

Then the wait began. Thankfully the nurses updated us each hour and they actually finished the surgery early. They sent us up to ICU and again we waited until they brought her down.

Surgery went perfectly!

They finally came to get us and as soon as we entered the ICU, I heard her crying. Then I started crying. A nurse was holding her and as soon as Raegan saw me, she reached for me and this momma's heart grew 2 sizes. We were finally reunited.

Can you tell how happy I was?

She was very swollen and in a lot of pain. 

At one point I just couldn't handle it anymore. Watching her cry in pain was too much for me. My sister took her and rocked her and sang to her. I am so thankful for her. Right when I couldn't be strong, she stepped in and took over. I am so lucky to have her as a sister.

I sang "Our God" by Chris Tomlin for hours. The words were encouraging to me and the sound lulled Raegan to sleep each time she got upset.

But once we got her some pain meds she slept most of the afternoon and evening.

The evening and night time were very tough. She wanted to be held constantly, but wasn't sleeping well because she felt terrible.

Kyle and I switched off back and worth holding her and sleeping in the chair. I would say we got maybe a total of 2-3 hours of sleep.

We tried getting her to eat but every time the bottle went into her mouth and she sucked, she pushed it away. Finally around 4am she started eating again. And by 7:30am our sweet love bug was back!

Her energy levels were back up and it was almost like she never had surgery. She even started pulling off all her wires. We couldn't keep her still. She was all over the place!

We were expecting a weekend stay in the hospital and now they were talking about letting us go home!

Her doctor stopped by, checked her out, and said if we wanted to we could go home. He wasn't surprised by Raegan at all. He knows she's a strong one!

So we went home less than 24 hours after surgery. We were shocked, but knew God was the reason why. We are so grateful for all of the prayers and well wishes.

She is definitely a little warrior!

Every day that passes she gets better and better.

Our next obstacle is that her cleft doesn't open back up. Our post op is in 3 weeks. If it doesn't open up in that time, than it never will. There's a 17% chance that it could open back up. Please pray it doesn't.

And to make things even more fun, we are 4 days post-op and she's trying to take her first steps. 

How is she old enough to do this?