Saturday, May 3, 2008

Post Surgery

Here is a pic of Jackson right before we got in the car to head to LA.
One last shot of our wide smile boy with no face gear on:


The trip down to the hotel was great. We made it into LA with minimal traffic and were able to get a bit of sleep before having to be at the hospital at 6am on Thursday morning.

We spent an hour getting Jackson checked out and answering pre-op questions, and then sat with him waiting for the surgical team to show up.




5 hours later, we had our boy back and in recovery. Lip and nose fully repaired and ear tubes put in place. However.... it didn't exactly look like our boy anymore. Totally crazy.





Say hello to the new Jackson. He comes complete with arm braces, and movable limbs!




He was awesome on the ride home. He has slept almost constantly since he got out of surgery and is drugged up most of time. He breathes about 100 decibels quieter and is really mellow right now. It's taking a bit of getting used to, but hopefully he'll be getting off the medication soon, and then we'll have our boy back!

7 comments:

Soderin Family said...

Hi Whittington family,
I have been checking everyday since the surgery thinking and praying for all of you. I am so happy to hear that everything went well. Please let us know if and when we can either bring you guys dinner or take you guys to your favorite LO hotspot. :)

Hugs,

the soderins

Cameron Ingalls said...

I am so glad to read everything went well with the sugery! Amazing!!! Love your little family.

Anonymous said...

what a praise! so thrilled everything went well. jackson looks amazing.

Askins Photography said...

Simply AMAZING! He is quite the brave little boy. We are thrilled for you.

Love,
The Askins

annafowler said...

Hi Halle,

I am a fellow mom on Widesmiles and checked out your blog today. Jackson is such a beautiful guy. His new little smile is just gorgeous (as was his old one!). I am sure you are a very proud mama.

I hope you don't mind, I read up on some of your older posts below. A couple caught my eye.

First, the post where you talked about the diagnosis on Jackson- my oldest son, Jimmy, was also born with a sacral dimple along with his cleft. Jimmy doesn't seem to be exhibiting any other signs of a syndrome and his geneticist seems to feel it is non syndromic. Has Jackson shown any other symptoms other than the cleft and dimple? Keep me posted on if you find anything new out.

Also, I thought the "Thoughts about God" post/link to the internetmonk was great. I think he really hit some things right on.

You know, having these kids born with clefts and having to endure surgeries although at times is challenging, it is so worth it and I know God is opening our hearts in a way, they never could have been opened- don't you feel like you heart is 10 times bigger since the birth of Jackson? I feel like God works in mysterious ways and he often answers our prayers in ways we sometimes don't understand at the time of asking.

This is turning into a novel, so I'll stop here, but I just wanted to say hi and tell you I thoroughly enjoyed your blog!

Anna said...

Hello Whittington's...been checking in constantly thanks for updating...so glad the surgery went well...We have been praying...we can't wait to meet your little guy, and of course see you two! Hopefully soon!
Love to you and your awesome family!

Anonymous said...

Hi whittington family! so so so glad to read/see that little jackson is recovering like a rock star. we can't wait to see him and you guys again soon...what a brave little lamb you have there. Let us know if you need anything...like chocolate croissants! :)
love,
J & S davenports