Here is the update we have all been waiting for, even us! On Tuesday November 8 we had an appointment in San Francisco to finalize all the details of Milo’s next surgery and get all the molds of his mouth so all the appliances can be made that he will have to wear after the surgery. We went to San Francisco because the doctor who is in charge of making the molds works out of San Francisco and it was just easier that way.
Doctors Toth and Indreasano will be performing the surgery. Dr. Toth is the plastic surgeon that worked on Milo the first time and Dr. Indreasano is the oral surgeon and he has only been involved with Milo for the last 2 years and really only the last 3 months.
From what we understand they are planning to do the surgery on Tuesday January 19, 2010 at Oakland Children’s hospital. He will be in the hospital about a week to 10 days depending on how he recovers. He will come out of surgery with a halo on his head and his eyes stitched closed. He will have the halo for about 3 weeks and, hopefully, his eyes will only be stitched closed for the first week. They will be advancing his mid face about 2cm. Doesn’t seem like much but it will make a big difference. He will no longer have an under bite but an over bite in anticipation that his lower jaw will keep growing and catch up with the upper jaw. He will have more eye protection but his eyes will still appear “big”.
While he has the halo on he will not be allowed to eat solids. I turned to Milo and said ‘Guess you’ll be eating a lot of yogurt and ice cream’. That was when the doctor turned to him and said ‘Oh you can blend anything. You can eat a cheeseburger as long as your mom blends it first’. I will only blend something if Milo insists. But I don’t see myself sticking a cheeseburger into a blender anytime soon!!
The girls will get to party while we are doing all this with Milo. The girls are excited about their upcoming adventures and we are REALLY appreciative to those who have agreed to help us out. It will be a huge relief to not have to worry about the girls. I will know they are being taken care of and having a lot of fun!
Now for some pictures of his appointment:
[They would open his mouth really wide and put a mirror in there and then take a picture. I guess it’s so they know what his mouth looks like now and what they want it to look like after the surgery.]
[They would put this soft play dough like stuff in his mouth and when it turned from white to purple it was hard enough to take out. About 70 seconds. He couldn’t move his mouth at all. He did a fabulous job!]
[The top mold was especially hard because it went down his throat a little and he would gag. But he’d gag once or twice and then just sit till it turned purple. He really is a special little guy!]
[This was the hardest of all because it closed up his only way to breath! Milo really can’t breath through is nose. So they had to do this one twice and the guy left a little whole in the middle so Milo could breath.]
Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you out during, before or after the surgery.
Sami, Milo and your family will certainly be in our prayers for the coming weeks.