“Operation Smile”

Today is the Big day for Olivia. This will be (hopefully) her last surgery for a while. The rest will likely happen in her teens.

In case you don’t know, children born with Cleft lip & palate have a gap (cleft) in their upper jaw. Once adult teeth 🦷 start making their way in it’s time to give them somewhere to go. Lips are typically fixed within the first weeks of life and palate closed shortly thereafter. In Olivia’s case, China doesn’t work on the same timetable. Olivia’s lip was repaired in China at age 1 and her palate after we brought her home at age 2. Now we are on schedule. Bone Grafting typically takes place around age 7. 

So here we are. Today the surgeon will take a piece of her hip and graft it into her upper jaw. He will also revise her lip to be a bit more symmetrical. Any further revision to her nose and lip will happen when her face stops growing in her teens. Our surgeon is the best, we met with several teams before we settled on him and he was clearly the best choice. For this surgery I’ve no idea what to expect after.  In cleft groups I’m a part of I’ve seen anything from horrible bruising and swelling to minimal swelling.  We shall see in a few hours, or days how it goes.  Surgery should last for about 3 hours. If you would pray with us for the best possible scenario and a successful graft.

She is nervous and handling it all in true Livvy fashion. She has a lot of questions and wants to know each step of the process. Thanks to Covid we both can’t be with her. I’ll be with her much of the day and Rob will give me a break at some point. She will likely stay the night but if she’s doing great he will let us go on to the hotel! 🤞🏻 She’s already scored some awesome prizes 😜  

They took her back about 8:15.  Should be around 3 hours before the dr finishes. Please pray with us for our precious girl. She was pretty sad went the took her back. 

Xoxo

Jenn