Scrooged!!!

Well, we have some unfortunate news. On Friday it was discovered that one of the devices in Gwendolyn's jaw has come apart. How and when it happened is unknown.

My strong feeling is that it is related to her breathing issues... that when they inserted the breathing tube during her last procedure, they opened her mouth too far and rendered the device useless. Of course, no matter how much we believe that, it can't be proven. Again, it just seems too coincidental to not be the case. The other point of contention is that this exact possibility was brought up by me when these breathing issues came to the surface last weekend but I was quickly dismissed because I was told it was an impossibility her jaw was opened that far when the breathing tube was inserted. Well something happened!!! In fact the plastics doctor told Heather on Friday that he's never seen this happen to an infant before. The only time he's seen it is either when children have fallen and hit their chin or have been eating something hard that popped it out of place. Needless to say, neither is the culprit in this circumstance.

Regardless of how and when it happened, the unfortunate truth is that it has and we need to deal with the ramifications of it. Currently, the left side of Gwen's jaw is seven millimeters more recessed than the right side. And so, on Tuesday afternoon Gwen will once again undergo surgery to implant the extension devices on both sides of her jaw. In addition to evening out her jaw, both sides will actually be extended out farther than before. The plastics doctor said that while the previous device greatly improved her jaw's placement, it actually could have come out farther to reach the optimal location. So, they'll extend it out to a more prime position for her situation. In the end, it could even help solve her eating issues but we'll just settle for getting her back to the point where's she's breathing normally without the assistance of humidified room air.

As you probably surmised by now, that means there's no chance that Gwenner will be home for Christmas. On the bright side, we've been told we won't have to wait until the extraction is fully complete like before. The plastics doctor felt that since we just went through this whole thing a couple of weeks ago, we'll be more than amply prepared to deal with turning her screws at home.

So, rumor has it that after she's off the breathing tube and out of a danger zone, we'll be taking her home. Of course, that will be well past two months since we were admitted and we've been told many, many times before that we were close to going home so call us cynical if we hold off on the champagne toasts until Gwen is indeed at home.

As you can see from the top of this entry, at least Gwen got a visit from Santa in the hospital. We'll have to be sure that Braelyn gets to visit the jolly guy herself.

That's all for now. I anticipate we won't have much else to report until after the new jaw devices are installed on Tuesday, which ironically is the day that Nana and Poppa arrive for a Christmas visit.

And so it goes...