Fill #5 and some GOOD NEWS!!!

"Mom, don't you see the big tower?"

"Uhhh, no, honey. We just turned out of the driveway. We first have to get through this:

and go through this."

And, oh dear. Although we looked for the big tower, all we saw was this:

But she was still happy to see a part of it!

All smiles after the lotion and saran wrap. What a difference from last week already!

Thankfully, Shaindy wasn't needed in any emergencies and so she was there to help us. Although Keziah did still cry a bit, it wasn't NEAR as much as last week. No kicking. No screaming. Shaindy and the distractions she brought with were so helpful!! Some of these distratctions were bubbles!!!

And the Ipad, where she could watch and listen to different songs. Meanwhile, Doctor Tom was able to fill both expanders another 30 cc's.

Dr. Zucker is back from India, where they were able to do many successful operations on children with cleft lip/palates. That is him holding Kez's head:

So the actual procedures went fairly well as her anxiety level did not go near as high as last week's. We are thankful for this. The pain level, however, was quite a bit higher and this became noticeable already before we left the hospital. Keziah started to cry because of her cheek, becoming so upset she started to gag. By that time Shaindy and the doctors were gone already and we were just booking the appointments for June. She had no interest in Timbits, picking out her bravery beads or anything. So we just left. She cried hard for a good chunk of the ride home, leaving her exhausted. She finally fell asleep despite her hiccupping. My poor girl :o(

Her cheek is definitely getting heavy, so heavy that she felt she needed to hold it while eating her blueberries :o)

Once she felt better, she was up to making a picture for Oma....

...for coming to our place to take care of this little guy!

But I wrote in the title "GOOD NEWS" and I wasn't referring to how well the procedures went. I am referring to the fact that Dr. Zucker is very pleased with how things are looking, to the point that we are talking of bumping the surgery up!! As you can see by the picture below, her cheek is quite expanded, and will only need one or two more fills! Yay!! The forehead one needs a few more. So he is talking about doing the surgery late June, rather than late July/beginning of August! Not just good news, but great news!!! So it's been tentatively set for June 28th or 29th.

We are thrilled! Too bad Keziah is too young to understand that it's only for another month or so. As you can see, she's looking pretty drained.

Once the surgery is completed, she'll heal for 6 months and then we get to do it all over again, except we won't be doing a cheek expander, just a forehead one. Because the birthmark is so large, they won't be able to get it all off in one shot. So if all heals well, another expander will be put in where some of the birthmark was taken off, to be stretched to get the rest off by her temple area.

But we'll worry about that in 6 months. For now, we praise God for blessing the procedures without any complications thus far. Thank you for all your prayers!!