Palate Repair Ahead!

Oh my....the time has come. It is now time for Ivy's second surgery. This one will repair her cleft palate. Basically they will take the skin, tissue and muscle that are already there and stretch them and straighten them to fit across her entire mouth. My understanding is that when child is born with a cleft palate the muscles run at a diagonal from the back of the mouth to the front. The surgery will re-shape them to be horizontal like in a normal palate. The surgery will take 3.5 hours and then she will spend the night at the hospital. Ivy will also be getting tubes put in her ears during this surgery.

I am nervous but I trust the surgical team and the hospital staff. Our Surgeon let us know that the lip repair surgery was a warm up and that this one would be worse - um, thanks Doc. She compared it to burning the entire roof of your mouth on super hot food. She said that Ivy will be very uncomfortable and in a lot of pain. Poor sweet baby. She will be on heavy pain meds for 2-5 days and then Tylenol for a while after that until she is feeling better. She will have to wear arm restraints for 3 weeks so that she can't hurt the surgery site. From parents that have gone through this before I have heard that babies are usually up and playing the next day after surgery and that within a week they are feeling better and back to themselves within the first couple of weeks. So that is what we are hoping for.

If anyone is interested, there is this great video of a palate repair on youtube. I also shared the lip repair video when Ivy had her other repair. So here is the palate video if anyone wants to watch. You can also search youtube for more palate repair videos but some of them are very graphic so select wisely if you are squeamish. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y8m96wF4Fw