G & G Stevenson

As I mentioned, Grams took lots of pics from Ella’s stay this past week. Here are a few worth mentioning.

This Friday we have a doctor appointment with our surgeon – Dr. Shehadi. He is going to look at Ella’s roof of her mouth to determine how large the hole is and schedule our next surgery. I think it’s going to be relatively soon and am actually going to push for that. Even though the last surgery was very painful for all involved – I want to get it done and move forward with the summer. I am curious if he plans to do anything cosmetic during this surgery since her lip looks so great, so we will see. I think that her lip has started to pull up a bit as she has grown and there is an excess piece of skin that hangs a bit on her lip – but I am pretty sure that I am the only person who notices that at this point. I guess we will just wait and see – that’s always the motto.

In other news, I came across a family in northern Wisconsin via a Facebook group, who have a son that also has a cleft lip and palate. It’s nice to have people to talk to and especially when they are local and can relate to other aspects of your lives. Their son Owen just went through his first surgery this week and I think all is well so far. Looking at his pictures of post-surgery almost brought tears to my eyes. I forgot how overwhelming that feeling was. Seeing Ella for the first time was an unexpected set of emotions. I felt sad that I would no longer see the big “winged” smile, I felt scared that she was in so much pain and I felt happy that one surgery could change her life in so many ways. Most of all I felt grateful for Dr. Shehadi and my special little girl.