another medical Saturday

In anticipation of an upcoming surgery we took John Paul back to the hospital where his palate repair surgery was done.  This hospital did a fantastic job, and the surgeon is top in his field, but it was a hard, tough, arduous time for our little family, and I've been in no hurry to return. 

Surrounded by siblings is definitely one sure-fire way to mitigate fear and apprehension.  These four are part of the original John Paul fan club, and his big sis Julianna is especially tender-hearted, and defensive, and you do not want to cross her path if you have any ill-intent towards John Paul.

There Julianna is again, keeping close watch on his speech therapy eval.  "He did pretty good, especially because it was all in Chinese", was her educated opinion.

[Personally, I think he is doing well, but when he gets tired or lazy he looses some of his harder sounds like /v/ and /f/ and I'm definitely planning to have an eval done in the States.  My dream is that he 'barely' qualifies for therapy - I'd love for a little extra speech support, and insurance will cover it if he qualifies!]

Many hard hours in this hall with my stressed out, traumatized, hurting little boy.

This is the step-down unit, on the far left side is a bank of windows looking at the nurses station.  He left the OR, spent about two hours in ICU, and then met me here.  We were the far bed on the right.  He was heavily sedated, with blood occasionally coming out of his nose and mouth.  Even when he opened his eyes and looked at me I got the distinct feeling I wasn't who he was hoping for (he had only been home about four months).  Oh, and his pulse ox kept slipping and the alarm kept sounding and the two of us were A WRECK!

But we made it!  And if what doesn't kill you makes you stronger... well that might explain part of the iron-clad attachment the two of us currently enjoy.

The attending surgeon looked at his mouth and thinks we are still at least a year away from needing to do his bone graft.  We will get a second opinion at UNC in July.

And now, for John Paul, we are going to take a little break from medical Saturdays (dentist last week, hospital this week is plenty for my guy!)