Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

Another early day for us today. In addition to getting to see all of my family and friends in SLC, I had another reason for coming. My parents wanted me to have an evaluation for surgery by Dr Morales at Primary Children's about my jaw surgery. Aunt Kristin came to the appointment with us, you can see her posing with me in the waiting room.

Dr Morales came in with a bunch of young doctor's. He got a general history from my parents and then did an exam of my mouth. That wasn't very fun and I cried. Once I had calmed down on Mommy's lap, he explained his opinion on the surgery. He thinks now would be a good time to have the jaw surgery done. He thinks it will probably take more than one surgery. He said that he thinks he would recommend an external jaw distraction (I put a picture of that up on the blog a while back) but instead of having to stay inpatient for a several weeks, he thinks I would only have to be inpatient a day or two. That's because since I have a trach my airway would still be stable even with all the swelling. Then, I would need to be seen once a week for the first three weeks, and then once every three weeks after that for several months. My parents really liked Dr Morales so after they talk to the surgeons at UC Davis and Stanford the first week of April they will make a decision on where to have my surgery and when.

After my appointment, my parents spent some time at Aunt Kristin's with my Uncle Jason while she was on a conference call. It was nice to relax for a little while. Before I could get a good nap in, it was time to go to Karen's for the afternoon. They had a nice lunch while I played.

I tried to nap in the car on the way home but it didn't work really well so once we got back to Aunt Kristin's, I went down for a nap with my Daddy while Mommy helped Kristin get ready for dinner. When I woke up, my Grandma Mower and Uncle Jason were there to play with me. Mike, Lesha and Wade all stopped by, too.

Soon, it was time for my Mommy to say goodbye to Uncle Jason and Grandma Mower - since we leave for Sacramento tomorrow. She was very sad. My parents got me bathed and ready for bed and Mommy was still very sad. She told Daddy it is going to be hard to leave but she knows that Sacramento is where we need to be right now because of the nursing care. I don't want to leave either, but I sure do miss my brothers.

Peyton Nicole Smith