Cleft palate surgery is complete

She got out of surgery around 9:15. Everything went great!! She is now cuddling with Mommy catching some Z's. We will be staying overnight and going home in the morning :)!!!

In surgery 5-24-13

Braylee just went back to surgery. They estimate it to take  1 hr 20 minutes. Please pray for our baby girl and her doctors.

Surgery #2 tomorrow

We have made it to Salt Lake. The hospital called to get her history , we told them that she had been on a steroid a month back and they told us that they may end up cancelling her surgery because of that. They said they would let us know. We haven't heard anything so surgery is still on. She is scheduled to start at 7:30 a.m.  another bump to get over but she is going to breeze through this surgery!  All of her grandparents are here to cheer her on! Wish her luck!!!

5-6-13 hand surgery set

We had a very busy day today in Salt Lake City. B had 3 Dr. Appointments. Her first one was with Shriner's Hospital, where she had x-rays done on her hands. These are the first x-rays she has had done on her hands so it was very interesting to see what was going on.  We learned that they will most likely not separate every individual finger now. Instead on her right hand they will be separating her middle finger from her ring finger and straightening out her thumb and that will most likely be all that they do. For her left hand they will straighten her thumb and then start by separating her index from her  middle finger. It turns out she only has 2 bones where she is supposed to have 3. So it is safe to say she will not have a full range of motion even after the surgery but we hope that it is better than it is now.  This surgery is set for August 12, 2013!
Her second appointment was with her ophthalmologist. Her eyes are still drifting a little when she looks to the side (a common symptom of Apert Syndrome) but it is not serious enough to do anything about at this time. We go back in 6 months and if her eyes are still randomly watering then she will perform a procedure called probing to open up her tear ducts. 
Her third appointment was for helmet. Just a standard check up. We have made it 2 whole weeks with no problems.....knock on wood!  He was afraid to drill some holes in her helmet to help ventilate with the warmer weather because with Braylee being Braylee this would most likely cause a problem. So if it's not broken don't fix it kind of philosophy!
So much information today but we are so glad to be moving forward and get all of these surgeries behind us! Only 18 days until her next surgery!

Right hand x-ray

Left hand x-ray

Yes she is:-) 

Cleft palate surgery is postponed

Well we went to Braylee's pediatrician today to have him check her out and see if we could do her surgery on Friday since she is still sick..........going on 3 weeks :-( .  he determined she has developed an ear infection in her right ear now. Along with her wheezing and coughing we have officially postponed her cleft palate surgery until May 24, 2013. This should give her plenty of time to get back to feeling 100%.  Let's hope the new meds work and she can get over this darn crud!!!

 

 

 

Playing in the tub!

 

 

A happy little girl even during her breathing treatments!

 

What ya doin?

 

 

 

 

 

The Minnie Mouse sisters :)

 

Braylee's Cranial Transformation!

Here are some pictures to show you how amazing her transformation has been from her Cranial Vault Reconstruction!  Keep your eye out for Day 3 post-op.  Those are in order from her dressing being on in the morning to evening!  It is amazing the difference you will see!

 

 

BEFORE

 

 

 AFTER

 

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Cleft palate surgery is set

Well Braylee's cleft palate surgery is officially scheduled for April 26, 2013.  There will be two different processes during this surgery one for her soft palate and another for her hard palate. 
To close up her soft palate her surgeon will be taking flaps of muscle and skin from her existing palate and bring them to the center to close up her opening and stitch it up in a Z form so that the muscle will still work right. This will go up to where the soft meets the hard. The hard palate will be closed by taking flaps of the skin from both sides of her existing hard palate and bringing it to the center. There will be no skin on both sides from taking the flaps but since there is bone directly under that there will be no access up into her nasal cavity.  So after this she shouldn't need any other surgeries on her cleft.  We are so very thankful for that.

Such a pretty little girl

Our "B"