Blog 52 - Nick's Lefort III Advancement Op continued

Nick stayed in PICU for two days. He was well enough to go to the ward the next day but there were no beds so he stayed in PICU another night which I was happy about because that meant one-on-one nursing care.

Again I slept in a recliner beside the bed. I needed to be there incase he woke up...which he did...and though his eyes were swollen shut and he could not see me...he knew I was there.

At 4.30am in the morning I was woken up by the nurse and shunted out to the parent lounge to sleep on the couch as a baby was coming into PICU and they wanted to give my recliner to the mother. I snoozed for an hour and then went back to be with Nick.

Back in the ward Nick coped as best as he could. He was on background morphine and a morphine bolis...but after a few days he hardly used the bolis. It wasn't long and he was only on panadol. Nick amazed me with his high pain tolerance.

Because his bone was just sitting in the muscles he had to eat pureed food, soft or liquids. Nick could not master a straw so I would syringe the milk into his mouth.








 

• On the Monday after the operation the wires were attached from his mouth plate to the black vertical rod. This really hurt Nick and he had a panic attack. We found out the following Friday after Nick had an xray that the plastics registrar had accidentally moved the bones forward when attaching the wires - he was not supposed to do this... No wonder Nick was crying and saying it hurt!

I started turning the screws (cheekbones and upper jaw) on Tuesday, a week after the operation and we started the advancement process.  Nick started to get bouts of anxiety and OT became involved. Nick was not eager to talk to the OT Carly, but I was able to talk to him after she had left each day. Nick was told by the plastics registrar that once we start turning the screws we could not stop.

Nick got very low and nothing could cheer him. We took him to Southbank for some time out which did seem to help.

Before he could go home Nick needed to see the plastic surgeon and the dentist. The dentist noticed that Nick's upper jaw was already in front of his bottom jaw - it was already where it should be! Nick was sent for an xray. It showed that the plastics registrar had moved his top jaw forward accidentally when he had attached the wires to the mouth plate, then I had wound it forward a further 4mm. We were not to turn the lower screws from then on...just the cheekbone screws.

On Day 10 post-surgery we took him home. Going home did lift his spirits.

 

At home

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