OWEN IS HOME

I am happy to report that our little guy is home and doing o.k. Surgery was a succuss and true to Owen's nature he was the trooper we knew he would be.

Surgery took 2 1/2 hours, they placed tubes in both ears and repaired his palate. His surgeon said that the cleft was deeper then orginially thought and that it involved three layers of the palate. I asked how many stitches he received and he replied with "I don't think you really want to know, but for a number I will say around 65" I am figuring it is a lot more but he was right I don't want to know. I was so repaired for Owen to be in pain from the cleft repair but was not prepared for him to be in pain from the placement of the tubes. I think because everyone made that surgery seem so simple but let me tell you our boy is in serious pain from his ears, he keeps rubbing behind them and moaning. It is very sad.

I should also mention that when they brought him into the recovery room we were waiting for him, thankfully the surgeon came out to talk with us prior to seeing our baby and prepared me for what I was going to see, he had splits on both arms to stop him from touching his mouth and he had a stitch that went from his tongue (yes, it was attached to his tongue) coming out of his mouth and tapped to his check. This was so that he would not swallow his tongue. It broke my heart seeing him this way, when he saw me he tried to wrap his arms around me but couldn't and just cried, we both cried.

Early yesterday morning the surgical team came to see him and removed the stitch immediately which of course made Owen very happy but they kept the splits on his arms by mid-morning Owen's arms were so red and irrated by them that I couldn't take it anymore, I found the resident on duty and told him that I wanted them off now, that we are watching him and won't allow him to touch his mouth. When we took them off Owen wrapped both arms around me and gave me lots of kisses.

I am so happy that this part of our family journey is over and can honestly say that this experience has truly taught me the meaning of a mothers love, I would do anything to take his pain away and make all this o.k. right now, I want so badly for him to understand that we did this for him, because we love him and want him to lead a happy and healthy life. But I know that he doesn't understand, I also understand when people say he is young he won't remember this, but I will remember, I will never get the look he had out of my head when I placed him on the operating table and they placed the mask over his mouth to put him to sleep, I will never forget the overwhelming pain I felt when I had to leave the operating room and walk away from my baby and leave him in the hands of the surgical team, my last words to the surgeon was "I am putting my world in your hands, please treat him like he was your own" the doctor gave me a hug and promised to place my son in my arms when this was all over better then when I left him And that is exactly what he did, when Owen came into the recovery room it was his surgeon holding him and he placed my son in my arms better then I had left him.

THANK YOU to everyone who has called, emailed, blogged, text message it is all appreciated and greatly needed.

Here is a picture of Owen in the family room at the hospital playing with the piano, you can see the splits in this picture, but doesn't he look good for a little boy who just had major surgery?