We're Home!

I just realized we should have sent another update. We were discharged last night and arrived home at about 7:00. Ainsley is doing okay. The swelling has gone down a lot. She’s starting to try to open her eyes but is having a difficult time. Perhaps due to swelling. Perhaps because it feels different since she now has more bone above her eyelids. We are keeping her medicated which is keeping the pain under control. Now that we’re back home I’m having to start right in dealing with the insurance problems about our in home nursing. It’s prevented the nursing agency from getting paid and if it doesn’t get resolved we’ll lose our nursing completely. As you all know we’ve been house bound all summer. The kids could use some fun so if you have time to take them during the day or an evening please let us know.

Cranial Reconstruction Today

Ainsley had her surgery today and thankfully everything went well. There were no complications and she’s now recovering in the surgical ward. The procedure was apparently complex and took longer than expected, almost 7 hours, but Ainsley did great throughout. She is sedated but appears to be very comfortable at the moment.

Her appearance is pretty remarkable. Her forehead, brow and temple area have been completely reshaped and her head is now very round with a prominent brow area. The boxy forehead is now really smoothed out and her head at the sides is much wider where it was previously indented. She has significant swelling which will peak sometime tomorrow but otherwise she looks very good. The doctors had images from the post-op CT-Scan and needless to say, the work they do is simply mind-boggling. Even knowing what to expect it’s still amazing to see how they piece all the bones together to create a new shape.

Susan is staying at the hospital throughout the night while I take care of Evie and Adrian. I’ll be heading back over tomorrow morning for a visit, but we don’t expect Ainsley to do much for at least another day. She’ll probably be in the hospital for at least 4 days but probably longer while they monitor her. We’ll send another update out as soon as we have more news.

Thanks!

Steve