Counting down

We are counting down the days until Matthew’s surgery, and we're almost there.

Tomorrow (Thursday, August 16) is the big day. His surgery starts at 10:30 am, so we’ll have to arrive at Seattle Children’s Hospital by 9:15. Aaron is going to stay in Everett and see a few clients in the morning, so my mom will go with me and keep me company until Aaron comes down to join us.

Matthew will be on the operating table for three hours with an additional hour for recovering and coming out of the anesthesia. I think it might be four of the longest hours of my life, but we’ll see. My mom is such a good companion—so good at passing the ordinary and extraordinary moments of time in a way that feels comforting to me—so I am quite sure that we’ll survive the waiting.

I’m also blessed to have two good friends who work at Children’s. Our friend Tauni is a nurse in ICU and she’ll be working both Thursday and Friday. Our friend Heather has more of a nurse administrator role (not exactly sure of her title) and she’ll be there too. Both of them have promised to stop by and see us while we are at the hospital. Familiar faces will be comforting too, I’m sure.

Matthew’s surgery will require at least a one-night hospital stay. We are hopeful that we can come home Friday afternoon sometime. Our church is bringing in meals four different nights starting on Saturday night, so that will help ease things during Matthew’s recovery period too.

One thing we know for sure is that Matthew will have to wear splints on his arms for several days (even weeks, perhaps) so that he can’t put his hands in his mouth. He’ll have stitches on his lip and below his nose externally, and he’ll also have some internal stitches.

When we met with Dr. Tse (our surgeon) last week, he drew us a picture on a piece of paper of what he’ll be doing during surgery. Aaron commented on just how STEADY his hand was while drawing—this gave us a huge boost of confidence in his steady hand for surgery on our boy too. I think we’re in the best hands possible—literally!

We would love your prayers and thoughts for a successful surgery and a speedy recovery for Matthew. I think our whole family could also use an extra dose of patience and energy as we help Matthew through the recovery time. We’ve heard it can be kind of rough (of course, only in the short term!) on some families as they help their child manage pain and deal with all the obstacles (the splints being one of them) that come after surgery.

Next Tuesday, we’ll go back to Children’s where Matthew will go under anesthetic again and have his sutures removed. I’m hoping that at least by then, we are back to functioning in a fairly regular way.

I WILL be updating the blog a few times tomorrow, hopefully with a couple of photos each time, so that family and friends who are interested can hear how things are going. We don’t anticipate anything abnormal or dramatic occurring—the Craniofacial Center at Children’s does cleft lip repair surgeries all the time (truly) and for them, this is a routine operation.

We also keep reminding ourselves what a good step this is for Matthew; he’s bonding to our family and developing all kinds of skills, but he needs his lip repaired to begin speaking words and to start moving toward optimal health.

One last thing to say—I continue to be amazed and overwhelmed with love for this little boy who has already overcome so many obstacles, lived through a significant transition, and continues to thrive in life and development. He is an incredible example to me of the resiliency possessed by the human spirit. This kid WANTS to develop and grow, and now that he has a supported environment, he’s taking off! This step of the process is so important for him, and I know he’ll bring his same strength and courage to it.

I’m trying to learn from Matthew—to take my courage from him—so that I too might be a courageous mama, brave and loving and patient through it all!