Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

Hard to believe it has already been over a week since my surgery and it was time to go back to Palo Alto for my follow up appointment. I was a pretty good girl most of the way down and took a short little nap that put me in a better mood when we arrived. Although we were about 15 minutes early for the appointment, they got us right in to a room. Two young male residents came in first to check out the steri strips and find out how I was doing. Then, Elena, Dr Schendel's nurse came in as well. All seemed right with the world until Elena pulled off the steri strip on one side of my face while a resident pulled the steri strip off the other side. OMG!!!! Whoever said it would be like pulling off a band aid was wrong! I had tears running down my face and Mommy felt so bad. She had wanted to get a picture of me with Dr Schendel for the blog, but by the time he came in a few moments later I wanted nothing to do with anyone but Mommy (and to be honest I didn't trust her much at that point!) Dr Schendel let Mommy know that he doesn't need to see me again for about four months. For now, my parents just need to keep stretching my jaw. As far as the flap surgery or an appliance for hypernasal speech due to my high arched palate - nothing would be done for several more years. We have to wait to see once I start talking more if I will have hypernasal speech. He told Mommy that he has several Nager patients that speak just fine without surgery or an appliance. So after a 2 hour drive we spent 15 minutes at the doctor's office and we were back in the car for another 2 hour drive home! After the drama of pulling off the steri strips and the too short nap on the way up, I was not in a very good mood. Lucille gave me a dose of Lortab and I was out within minutes - and I slept THE WHOLE WAY! After a nice two hour nap I was ready to play with Lucille once we got home. Mommy posted some pictures of me when we were playing with Daddy so you could see my face without the steri strips. What a cutie - right!

Here is the link to the Fall 2008 newsletter with the article about my jaw distraction that Mommy wrote:
http://www.yousendit.com/download/bVlEa3ZDd0l6NEpMWEE9PQ

Peyton Nicole Smith