Home for now....but Second Lip Surgery Failure.

I wanted to start this post by thanking all the people who have helped out over the past few days. We received so many encouraging phone calls, emails, text messages which really helped during those stressful moments. We are also really grateful to our family who helped take care of Sylvie: Uncle Aaron, Aunty Lesly, Cousin Jacob, Grandma Marjorie & Grandpa Roy - you all went above and beyond, we are very lucky to have you all in our family.

Cory and Mary will released from our local hospital this morning. They packed up and drove over to grandpa Roy and grandma Marjorie's to pick up me and Sylvie. I'm sure the grandparents were a little sad to see our Silva-roo go, they really enjoyed the last three days together. Last night (Monday) when I got to the grandparent's house, Sylvie was about to have her nightly bowl of ice cream. After she finished slurping up every last drop, I asked her "What do you say to Grandma and Grandpa?" in an effort to prompt her to politely say thank you. Instead our little princess looked up and seriously replied "More ice cream please". Gotta love that kid!

During the morning however, I noticed that Mary's left lip/nostril looked like it was opening back up again. We called the plastic surgeon and were able to get in to see him and his partner surgeon this afternoon. Our worst fears were confirmed, Mary's second surgery has failed as well. At this point they are baffled why this has occurred. They took extra steps the second time to ensure the stitches would hold. It appears at this time the muscle is still stiched together, but the top layer of her lip is coming apart and open.  Apparently the lip may come apart completely over the next few days/weeks.

The plan now is to wait a couple of weeks and reattempt the lip surgery again. The surgeons want to wait for the swelling to go down and see how Mary's lip looks (as well she has already been under anesthetic twice this week, so they want her to have a bit of a break from this as well). Mary is on antibiotics to prevent infection and we are washing the wound with hydrogen peroxide every day. They tell us there are no exposed nerves and that Mary is in no pain from this - which was one of my greatest fears. They also reassured us that Cory and I did not make any mistakes in after surgery care, but that unfortunately this just happened. Our one surgeon who has repaired clefts for 20 years (and goes overseas every year to help repair clefts in other countries) said he has never had a wound dehiss (not sure proper spelling), let alone twice.

So we are disappointed and sad, we feel so bad for Mary. We will see the surgeon again next week, and are encouraged to come in earlier if we feel the need. Cory did mention tonight that he could see a "positive" in all this, he told me that he was "glad this happened to us". What he meant was that *if* Mary's surgery had been preformed in China, who would have been there to take care of her when it failed? Would they even try to continue to repair it? So tonight that is what I am going to hold on to... We are here to help Mary through this and will be the best advocates for her medical care.