Wednesday, October 20, 2010

1 week post op

Well its been a week since Lauren's palate surgery. She is pretty much back to her normal self meaning no naps, wanting to be held, and curiously moving slowly around the house (with the arm braces). But she refuses to drink any milk!! I don't know if her mouth is still swollen from the surgery or if its teething or a milk strike, but I am going out of my mind figuring out how to get her back onto the bottle. She'll eat the soft foods, but when we bring out the bottle, she shuts her lips tight. The grandparents have now resorted to spoon feeding her milk which takes forever just to get 1-2 oz in her and Steve and I are syringing milk into her mouth nightly while one of us pins her down. She bats at the bottle, shakes her head furiously, spits the milk in our face and puts up a huge fight. By the end of it, she is a ball of sweat and we have milk everywhere. Tonight we finally just gave up and put her down for bed with no milk. She's lost alot of weight since the surgery which is another reason why I'm stressed. She has a big belly, but her arms and legs are so skinny now, it looks awful.

Other than the milk issues, Lauren is doing well. The ear tubes don't seem to have helped with her hearing (or speech), so we'll be going down to the hospital late November to meet with ENT and audiology for some more hearing tests.

On a final note, we learned a few days ago that Lauren will now be seen by a PT that is funded through the government! Yay! We've been on the waitlist for 7 months. I can't imagine where Lauren would be today if we hadn't digged into our own pockets and started with a private therapist when she was 6 months old. Canada's medicare system - universal access and publicly funded, but look what happens...children waiting for months and months for therapies. And what happens to those children whose parents can't afford to pay for private therapies?  Furthermore, even though Lauren will now have a publicly funded PT, we don't know how many therapy sessions she will get and at what frequency and for how long. We'll find out in November when we meet with the new PT for the first time for Lauren's initial assessment.

2 comments:

  1. Okay I *Might* be able to help here if I am not to late. Airomise did not have to have palate surgery or anything so I would check with your doc... but we are now using this. (He does have a high palate if that makes any difference).
    http://www.talkingchild.com/shop_HoneyBearCupwithStraw.aspx
    He couldn't hold his bottle but he could use this. I am guessing it might be easier for her than a bottle? It is easy to teach too, you squeeze the bottle and milk comes up. They are then encouraged to suck and wala... sippy cup! Airomise learned it within a week (this week!). You can also make one yourself. It is just one of those honey bears with a bit of tubing. I am already in love with it!

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  2. "Canada's medicare system - universal access and publicly funded, but look what happens...children waiting for months and months for therapies. "
    Ugh they are practically switching the US over to this :(. I am terrified. A may need another heart surgery in the future. Even if it is years in the future... I still worry.

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