Craniectomy and Reconstruction

Ainsley’s surgery went really well. We took her in at 6:15am yesterday. She was prepped for surgery. Then they took a look in her throat with a scope to check that upper airway. We haven’t had a chance to meet with the doc about her findings because she (the doc) was in surgery all day until after we left the hospital. Afterward they did the craniotomy and finished in the afternoon. Then it took awhile to get her settled into her room and give her medication. When we left at about 6:45pm to get the kids she was doing well and was pretty sedated. The shape of her head is pretty dramatically different. It’s incredible what they can do so quickly. This surgery rounded out the back of her head. Even her forehead and face look different to me. Somehow the correction in the back still affected the front slightly. It’s odd to see your child’s face change in a matter of hours. It’s not bad or anything. It’ll just take a little time to get used to it. Probably to anyone but a mother it will not be noticeable. She will have another surgery in 6-8 months for the forehead and eye area. We are back to juggling our schedules to visit the hospital. I’d forgotten what a pain that is. She’ll be in the PICU for another day or so then will move to the surgery floor and stay for another few days. Probably she’ll be home by the weekend. So at least she shouldn’t be there for too long this time. After the surgery they did a CAT scan and we have a picture so if we see you, you can see what they did to the skull to make the change. It’s really incredible. It’s amazing what ordinary men can do. (or extraordinary ones). Hope to see you all soon.

Edited: In fact her face only looked different because the swelling had already set in.