The Surgery

Shortly after Kayelees 9 month well visit, we ended up having to take Kayelee into the dr for a sick visit (another ear infection.) The doctor noticed that Kayelee had a bifid uvula. He referred us to the specialty hospital in Logan, were we saw one ent doctor and did not feel comfortable doing any kind of surgery on her so he referred us to Primary Childrens Hospital. Where we met with a ent dr. he found out with the bifid uvula that she also had a submucos cleft palate. Which means she has a whole in her soft palate. So long story short he went and got another doctor which was a plastic surgeon. He also looked at her and from there we were told that she would need surgery to repair her cleft palate, and her bifid uvual, as well as tubes in her ears. Tubes because kids with those two things have greater chances of having multiple ear infections. It took a few days to get her surgery scheduled. Because she would have two surgeons working on her, the plastic surgeon doing the mouth stuff and the ent dr doing tubes. We got her surgery scheduled for March 1st at 2:15 p.m. luckily she was able to have breast milk until 4 hours before her surgery. they were running behind with surgeries so she did not go into surgery till 3:15. They took her in and at about 5:45p.m she was out. It took three doses of morphine to get her pain under control and one more so we could stay on top of her pain. From then on she got more morphine but not every two hours like she was getting. Then as soon as she was eating something we were able to give her just Tylenol and ibuprofen. We were only suppose to have to stay one night but it ended up being a 4 night stay. She was not eating enough to come home. the dr. and nurses had her on a iv and oxygen all thursday night. Because of all the morphine it was causing her to not take as deep of breaths as she should have been. They took her off of the iv Friday afternoon to see if taking her off the iv would help her to drink and eat. We were able to get her to drink a little by force feeding her through a medicine syringe and a one 4oz baby apple sauce. But I did not feel comfortable going home till she ate and drank more. its a good thing we did not go home cause she totally regressed and refused to eat or drink by Saturday morning. Then Saturday afternoon they put her back on the iv till Sunday morning when her iv went bad. by this time we have tried EVERYTHING possible to get this little girl to eat. We started with her bottle she is used to taking she wouldn't take it. From there we tried 3 different bottles 2 of them were cleft palate bottles. We tried two different sippy cups with the valve, without the valve. Which she could not do sippy cups before her surgery. So I really didn't think she would take one but I gave it a shot. We tried giving it to her through a straw pouring it in her mouth that way. Having her drink from a cup. We tried different foods different drinks. I mean we tried EVERTHING. Then Sunday afternoon we found the magic food that she would take and it was cream of wheat. It has got enough liquid in it plus what we were forcing her to drink by squirting it in her mouth that she was able to come home Monday morning. About 4 or 5 days ago she has started to drink better with her bottle nipple that she had before her surgery. She is still not drinking that well. She has lost almost two pounds since her surgery. We went into the ped dr on Friday the 16th for a sick visit. she weighs 15.4 pounds. He said if she falls into the 14 pound range we would have to put her back into the hospital. So we are really trying to get her to drink and eat more so we dont end up back in the hospital. ( I hope this all makes sence)






Kayelee right after surgery, the nurses had to call me back even before we met with the dr. she woke up so cranky they called me back, and as soon as I picked her up she calmed right down. Dan stayed behind to talk with the doctors.


Her stats were low so they put her on oxygen











On our way to our room



this is of her tongue stitch. They did this because her throat was swollen and they dont want her tongue relaxing and chocking her. they took this out the morning after her surgery.

Having some fun listening to some volunteer that comes and plays the guitar







the bruise from her tongue stitch






They had to wrap her iv with coban because she kept pulling on it, and putting the end where they put the iv tube in her mouth.



Not quite used to her new mouth for about the first 2 weeks she constantly had her mouth opened. she is getting a little better now that it has been 17 days, but still has it opened a lot







Playing with some toys in her crib.



Her iv went bad in the middle of the night Saturday night, and it was not caught till sunday rounds about 7:30 a.m. the pictures dont really show how bad her arm was, but her arm was about 2 times bigger then it should have been.



side by side of her arms

Her big swollen arm

ready to go home

Still has her mouth opened