As usual nothing less than EXTRAORDINARY 5-22-18

Today is 11 days post-op and she had her first check up with her orthodontist.  There has been a lot of movement and change going on and we were anxious to hear what he had to say.  Going into this surgery her nasal passage was about 95% blocked by bone and she could barely pass any air through her left nostril.  Well as of today I am happy to report that she was starting to move more air through the left side.  He said that it is still pretty swollen so we should see a little more improvement on that as the swelling starts to decrease.  He then had her open her mouth and he was amazed at how much space she had!  We went into this appointment expecting to turn for  4-7 more days and come back in a week for another progress check-up but her progress has been so amazing and she is where he wants her to be so we get to stop turning and don't have to come back for a month!!! All we have to do now is sit and wait for the bone to grow and fill in which should take around 4 months with a check up being done once a month.  Then sometime in September we will be removing the expander.  

Before and after

Before and After

Each surgery is hard for the obvious reasons but I think one of the hardest parts is knowing that your child's appearance is going to be different than when she went in.  We love her just the way she is and we  don't ever want her to change so we have to remind ourselves that each surgery is to help her have a better quality of life and is for the best.  What we have noticed most with this surgery is her smile has changed. It is bigger and more open.  It has changed and it is beautiful just like her as was her old smile.  Just something that in the near future we wont' even notice is different anymore.  We will miss that old smile but we still have our amazing Braylee and that is what matters the most. 



We will not fear change for change can bring amazing things

HOME!! 5-12-18

We made it home!  Braylee did great last night and today on the trip home she did great also.  We are going to stay on top of pain management and hopefully be able to start and wean her meds a little bit tomorrow.  She is pretty swollen in the cheeks as to be expected.  Tomorrow is day 2 so the swelling could get a little worse before it gets better.  We have made 4 turns on her expander and she has handled in like a champ.  We have to turn it 2 times in the morning and 2 times at night for the next 2 weeks or until we have reached where they want her to be.  We will be returning to SLC  every 7-10 days for the next month for check-ups.  We'll just keep on keeping on and get her over this hump and get her back to her normal self.  Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers!!

Discharged 5-11-18

Braylee was doing so well they decided to discharge us tonight instead of tomorrow! We're back at the hotel and will hopefully get some good rest tonight minus waking up to take meds. We'll head back to Wyoming tomorrow. She amazes us every time!!

Out of surgery

Surgery went great! We may get to leave the hospital tonight depending on how she does these next few hours. If we do we'll be staying in the hotel and not far from the hospital. Right now we're just trying to stay on top of pain management, fluids, and make sure her oxygen SATs stay up. Thank you everyone for the prayers!!

7th Surgery Underway 5-11-18

Braylee went back into surgery at 12:40.  She went with NO happy juice, she is such a rockstar!!!! They anticipate it to take 3 hours.  Please pray for our baby girl and her doctors.

7th surgery tomorrow

Well tomorrow Braylee will go under the knife for the 7th time.  She will be having Lefort 1 which will be expanding her palate and nasal passages. She is scheduled to start at 12:45.  We wish it was an earlier time but with it having to be rescheduled a couple of weeks ago we got put where they could fit us. We'll just be thankful it's not later than it already is.  She just gets to have some sprite for breakfast and hopefully that'll make her happy and make up for not getting to eat!

Today we got to celebrate her younger sister Maddee's 3rd birthday a couple of days early at the zoo so Braylee can enjoy it and be able to eat pizza and cupcakes tonight before she's on a liquid diet for a week and then soft foods for at least a month. 

We'll update more when she heads back into the OR tomorrow.