Monday, September 15, 2008

Palate Prosthesis Removed

Austin had his palate prosthesis removed today in preparation for his upcoming palate repair surgery. He was put under general anesthesia and required intubation during the procedure. It took about five minutes to take out and he was roused from anesthesia after about twenty minutes. The doctor also gave us the prosthesis to take home for the scrapbook!

Overall, Austin did very well and he appears to be recovering quickly. He was discharged only an hour or so after surgery. He sounds slightly hoarse and has a little trouble getting used to an open palate again when drinking from a bottle. We were told that he should adjust soon, but to expect some food to escape into his nasal cavity. Luckily he will only have this problem temporarily. On the bright side, he may drool less without the prosthesis!


"Check out my bedhead hair!"


The nurse checks Austin's vitals before surgery.


Waiting in the pre-op area. He was getting pretty fussy, not having eaten since 8pm the night before!


In the post-op room after finally drinking some formula! All the providers at Primary Children's were fantastic and just loved little Austin!


Palate prosthesis with screws.

3 comments:

Teresa Gamboa said...

Holy Cow! I can't believe that you are home already and that you have blogged about your experience. That is good news because it means that all went well. That is great for little Austin! Congrats! Get Better Austin!

Fowler family said...

Cool- did you get to keep that prosthesis? Jimmy gets his out in a couple months. I hope we do!

Glad to hear it all went well. Keep us posted! He looks so good! -Anna

Anonymous said...

We are glad that everything went as planned. You guys handle things so well, I'm afraid I'd be a nervous wreck. Kiss Austin and Dylan for us.