Crash and Burn

Now that all the adrenaline is out of my system, I am suddenly totally exhausted. Even thinking of doing laundry is overwhelming to me. Francesca swelling is not going down; it's actually increasing. The doctor said this could be a sign of infection. She also had a fever of 101.6 tonight. If this continues, we will be back in the hospital. On the positive side, I think this whole ordeal has really helped Francesca to bond to me. Since we have been home, she has only wanted me to hold her.

I am going to post some surgery pictures, so if you are easily grossed out, you might not want to look, though I really think the surgery is amazing. Also, remember, Francesca looks bad, but she really isn't in too much pain because there aren't a lot of nerves in the head.

Francesca had four procedures done, plus the ear tubes. The first was an anterior cranial vault, which opened up her skull and gave her room to grow. The doctor said that the covering of her brain, the dura, was actually pushing up out of her soft spots, so thank God she had the surgery in time.

She also had a nose graft, and two surgeries on her eyes.


A few minutes before her six hour surgery.

Here she is right after surgery in the ICU. She lost two cups of blood, that's why she is so pale. She didn't need a blood transfusion. They actually did something called a cell savor, which means they recycled her own blood back into her.

The zig-zag incision is made show it won't show up so much once she heals. She has lots of sutures inside her head too. They splice her own skull bones to fix her head.

She never needed anything more than Tylenol. The doctor told me that kids who have had this surgery when they are older say that it doesn't hurt, but it just feels very tight from the swelling.

It was really tough on her not being able to see. The mark on her forehead is not common for the surgery. The doctor said that once he sewed her up, he felt like things were too tight, so he took down the skin again and fixed it.

Pre-surgery.

Victoria had her surgery the day after Francesca for her cleft palate. Here is what it looks like before surgery, like a big valley in the roof of her mouth. It took the doctors a long time to get this picture! Victoria was not a happy camper!

She was really in a lot of pain. She had to have strong pain meds every 15 minutes. They had to give her an IV in her neck, gross!! Blood was shooting out of her mouth and nose. It was tough to see.

They let me ride in her bed with her when they took us to her room.

They wouldn't let the girls be in the same room, which was kind of stressful, since I was running back and forth between both crying kids. Finally, I just brought Francesca into Victoria's room.

Victoria had to eat in order to be released and she would not, so we had to stay an extra day. Luckily, Miracle Flights was able to find us another flight home. Of course, she started eating five minutes after the doctor left! Her favorite food is cheap processed cheese slices. Only the best for my babies!

This was a bad shirt to put on Francesca. Her head was so swollen that I couldn't get it off her!

Victoria loves her books.

Francesca and I are going back to Texas on December 27th to get her fingers and toes separated. She will have four casts! Dr. Fearon, who did these surgeries, can separate her digits in only two surgeries, while the doctors here in Atlanta said it would take seven surgeries!! Dr. Fearon even does the stitches with the grain of their fingerprints so they don't have as much scarring.

Here they are at 2:30 in the morning. Who needs sleep anyway! I love how Francesca is patting Victoria.

I'm so happy to be home!!!