Update on Mary...

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to give an update on our Mary's lip surgery failure.

Mary's lip is now split completely open, the most painful part for her was the bottom of the lip actually separating. The past three nights have made it difficult for her to sleep due to the pain - she had her first night of semi decent sleep last night, thank goodness (that meant Mama and Daddy did too). 

At this point her premaxilla (the part of her lip/teeth that was protruding) is still holding, and we think it will continue to remain in place - however, only time will tell. Her cleft was a complete cleft and did go all the way into her nasal cavity. At this point it looks like her it is still slowly opening back up into her nostrils, especially on her left side (where it was the widest). We are not sure if it will open back up into her nasal cavity, as the doctors said it will all just depend, it may hold, it may not.

It is kinda hard to wait and watch, because I really just wanted some level of success from this surgery, and if it holds, she would not need to have this part corrected in the next surgery (in my mind making the next surgery a little easier on her). Plus, I know it sounds silly, but she looks so cute with nostrils (not that she wasn't gorgeous before, but you know what I mean). 

We met with our plastic surgeons again yesterday afternoon. The plan now is to wait for the edges of her lip to heal and new skin to grow there. If they were to do the surgery before this happened, they explained it would be like trying to stitch together "crab meat" and the stitches would not hold. We will be going back to the plastic surgeons each week for them to continue to assess and monitor her healing. When I asked what their time line was (understanding that it is all specific to how fast the healing goes) we were told to expect it to take about 3 months before the skin heals enough for another surgery. This was a little disappointing for me, as in my mind I thought we would have to wait a few weeks, but I understand this is what is best for Mary. 

I just wanted to thank everyone again for their support and messages to this post. I was so upset and disappointed last week, but have been trying to put everything into a better perspective now. We are thankful that there is no permanent damage, and that another surgery will be possible in the next few months.