meet the surgeon

Hi there,
Well we were having a good day on Tuesday until the earthquake news came through, we'd been to see Oscar's surgeon for his post op check-up.

Oscar and his surgeon - Zac

Zac was very happy with the results of his handy work. The area has healed well and the nasal splints and arm splints are gone! Oscar can now put whatever he likes, in his mouth again - although one of the benefits of surgery, is that he's forgotten that he used to like putting everything in his gob.
Zac thinks he'll do the next repair when Oscar is about a year old - June or July, but he'll see Oscar in 3 months time to see if he's ready for it, or if he'll wait another few months.
 

I started back at work two weeks ago, was an unexpected offer to work on Power Rangers (kids show) which is based in Glen Eden - which is where we live, so just a 5 minute drive to the office! Oscar is settling well into daycare which is just around the corner from our house. He's there three days a week and seems to be doing really well! I work Sunday to Thursday so I'm with Oscar on Friday and Saturday and Brennan has him on Sunday and Monday, then daycare Tuesday to Thursday. It's a bit of an adjustment but it's all good and hey we don't have anything to complain about aye!

Hope you and yours are all well and safe out there.

fi x

Oscar visiting his mum at work.

10 days later

Well it appears we have made it to the other side. Oscar is doing really well and although he is still rather grizzly, he is also happy and smiley most of the time. He's sleeping through the night again and eating really well. We don't have a bottle option at the moment but he's going great guns on his little 'open' cup, which is a plasitc cup that he sips from. His greatest pleasure at the moment is ripping up tissues....

His nasal splints are staying in til we see the surgeon on the 22nd Feb, which is all good, but we'll be glad when they're out. Our main enemy at the moment is the humidity, but everyone in Auckland is in the same boat! Bring on autumn I say!!!
Hope you are all well. Bye, from a much more relaxed Fiona x

recovery

well it's been a difficult few days for us, but I think we may have gotten over the hump.
Oscar has had a few problems with feeding since the surgery which has caused a bit of stress for his parents but he was much more comfortable eating today and we are confident that he's on the improve! I think he has a sore throat from having the breathing tube in during surgery and possible oral thrush from all the antibiotics he had to be on for the surgery. We started the thrush medication this morning and there was an almost instant change in him. Previously he had been turning his head away every time we went to feed him. He also can't use the special teat he was using prior to surgery (which we were lead to believe he'd be straight back on). Anyways, we are spoon feeding him, one little spoon at a time, and when he'll let us, we syringe it in. Today we tried a little glass with milk in it for him to sip from and he got the hang of it right away... so at the moment, it's just trying all of those things and taking it nice and slow and when none of those things work and we don't think he's had enough fluids, we hold his head and force it in... not pleasant or ideal and has lead to more than a few tears between Oscar and myself.

Other than that, the wee man is doing brilliantly well and today we had lots of smiles.
The lip and nose both look amazing and he is as cute as a button. He is coping really well with the arm splints and is even sleeping through the night more or less.

I have a stinking head cold which is not helping matters but hopefully a good sleep tonight will have me feeling a bit more human tomorrow.

Waiting to go into theatre on Friday

Today (5 days later)

Here are a couple of photo's of the new look Oscar. The nasal prongs stay in for 2 weeks post op, so 9 days to go!!!