"I've never seen......"

Since Nathan's birth almost 8 years ago we have heard several Drs. utter the words - "I have never seen that happen," or "It is very rare," or "Only a very small chance of that happening." Of course every time those words are uttered it happens to Nathan. We really didn't expect the same for Addison.

As you know, Addison had her palate repaired and lip adhered last week. Before we left the hospital I said to the surgeon "You know Addison's lip split when she was in China, what are the chances of that happening again?" That is when he uttered the words, "I have never seen a lip split open...even during my years of residency." We think the world of our surgeon and believe him to be a very caring man, he just didn't know that those words shouldn't be uttered around us.

The first few nights home were rough, but we figured it would only get better. Sadly it didn't. When the sun goes down a totally different Addison comes out. Addison is usually very loving and easy going, but at night a switch seems to flip. She screams and hits and kicks and then throws herself to me to be held tight. She only wants me....no one else, but at the same time the comfort I give her only lasts a little while. She (and I) have only been averaging a total of three hours of sleep each night - an that is total not consecutive. We do not believe she is in pain since she is find through out the day, we believe she is experiencing some sort of post tramatic stress from her time in China.

By the weekend we noticed her lip was coming apart. We called the on call plastic surgeon who have us some recommendations and told us to call our surgeon first thing Monday morning. In the meantime we tried melatonin, benadryl and tylone with codine to help her sleep. None of it worked. By Monday her lip was ripped up to her nose. We got an appt. for today - the 6th.

Today, Bob took Addison so I could get some much needed sleep. The surgeon was shocked to see how much her lip had come apart. Bob told him that we should have warned him about uttering those words to us. He really felt bad that Addison had to have gone through all of this. He too agreed that we were dealing with much more than pain. He spoke with the chief of anesthesia who told him that the only thing we could give her would be valium. So tonight we are going to try and see if that works. We pray that it doesn, not only for now but because she will be having another surgery in a couple of months. When they do the total lip repair/revision her lip will once again be at risk for seperation. So if we can keep her calm it will allow her to heal properly.

The good news is that her palate looks great. So far there are no fistulas and we hope that it stays that way.

I posted some pics of my families visit. We had a great time while they were here.