Helaina recovered very nicely from her surgery. The timing of the surgery over the Spring break was great because she had 2 full weeks at home to recover. For the first 10 days post-surgery she tired quickly and napped each afternoon for at least 90 minutes. By the end of the 2nd week she was pretty much back to her normal energy level. The tape holding the sutures tight came off after a week and we were finally able to gently wipe away the remaining dried blood. The few scabs that were left got ointment applied directly to them and they softened and fell off within a few more days. The skin is still pulled in tightly but has already begun to "relax" some and will continue to relax after the healing is done. In about a week we'll start massaging the area to help loosen things up even more. Helaina's happy with the result, we're happy with the result - all is good again.
The Saturday before Easter we finally got down to business. We made 2 bunny cakes - one for us and one for the cousins - pretzel whiskers, jelly bean eyes and chicklet gum teeth.
Oops! Our bunny cake even made chocolate chip poopies!
Yikes. Egg coloring is always a messy experience, but we made it through with no spills. Helaina had multi-colored fingers and hands when we were all done. One good thing, she loves hard boiled eggs.
The completed basket - finally assembled at about 10pm the night before Easter, then Jim and I hid plastic eggs around the house and prayed that the cat left them alone all night. The Easter bunny made Helaina very happy this year. Monster High movie and perfume, Junie B Jones puzzle book, bubbles, candy, Muno clippy for her backpack, giant Dora pen and a bunch of other fun things. The Easter bunny just loves shopping at Hobby Lobby!
Helaina thought it was hysterical that the Easter bunny floated a pink plastic egg in Peaches and Elly's fish bowl.
Thankfully Zoey left all the eggs alone that night for Helaina to find.
It took Helaina a while to find her basket. It wasn't hidden that well but she kept walking right past it. We had to give her hints to locate it!
My family ended up going out to brunch this year for the first time ever. We've NEVER celebrated a holiday at a restaurant, ever. This year was different because my sister had surgery 2 weeks ago, then Helaina's surgery was a week later and just 5 days before Easter. I didn't think I'd be able to pull it off while caring for her post-surgery. It worked out great, though. Eleven of us let the Ramada do the cooking and it was very good. They had their usual huge variety of breakfast items plus eggs benedict, prime rib, carved ham, chicken parmigana, macaroni and lots of desserts. Super yummy. I cooked a small ham that afternoon for sandwiches, so it was an easy holiday - no muss, no fuss this year.
THE REVEAL!
Two days after Easter, Helaina and I went to see Monsters Inc 3D and part way through the movie she leans over to me and whispers very excitedly "The tape just came loose on my lip!" I told her that we couldn't do anything about it at the movies but we'd check it out when we got home. The minute we walked in the door I called the surgeon to see if enough time had elapsed with the tape on (thankfully it did), then we called Jim at work. I wanted to wait until he was home later that afternoon but Helaina wanted it off immediately. Jim said to go ahead but email him a picture. Look at the excitement on her face - she couldn't wait to get that annoying piece of gross tape off! I was so nervous. I took a deep breath and gently peeled back and removed the tape and was amazed at what I saw. "How's it look?" Helaina quickly asked with a bit of nervousness in her voice. With a lump in my throat I took her little face in my hands and said "You were always beautiful just the way you were, but your lip looks ... amazing!"
With my hands shaking, I gently loosened and removed the dried blood with a moistened q-tip and covered the remaining scabbing with ointment. I prepared Helaina for what she would see. I told her that there were 2 thin red vertical incision lines with some scabbing still on that area, then I handed her a small mirror and let her have a look. She did a little gasp then said "How'd he do that?" Helaina's doctor is amazing. He's a board certified everything - plastic surgeon, ENT, craniofacial specialist and, oh yah, miracle worker too. How did he do that - I have no idea. Prior to the surgery Helaina had a horseshoe shaped scar from nostril to nostril with multiple "railroad track" type suture marks (from her lip repair in China when she was 9 months old). She also had a slightly uneven lip line with some puckering and dimpling right above her lip. All of that is gone, totally. She now has an even lip line, smooth skin and no suture marks because the stitching was done in layers from the inside out. Happy happy joy joy.
Helaina's post-op visit with the surgeon was Friday morning. Helaina made a card out of pink construction paper and decorated it with hearts and flowers. Inside she wrote "Dear Dr. T, Thank you for fixing my lip. You did a good job!! Love, Helaina". She was so excited to give it to him. The ears still remain an issue because he couldn't patch the giant hole in one eardrum because it was still infected and the patch would have "blown out". We will most likely see his partner the eardrum expert this summer and possibly have the hole patched. There's a concern of hearing loss with a hole that size. In the meantime we had Helaina fitted for a second set of custom earplugs to keep all water out of both ears. She chose pink this time. We're very careful at bathtime but swimming this summer will be an issue because our little mermaid likes to spend most of her time under the water.
Nobody is more thrilled with the surgery result than Helaina. Every time she'd pass a mirror in the house she'd make a different comment: "How'd he DO that? " "He's a scientist!" "I look good." "Dr. T is talented at surgery." "He must have special tools and fingers." So funny. She may need a tweek here and there as the years go by while her face, nose and mouth continue to grow, but I can't stress about that now. She's a beautiful child inside and out and I give a little chuckle when I refer to her as my Baby Beverly Hills!
