Jeff - a huge thanks for pulling together the website! This thread is getting SO long I was wondering how to note where all the important bits were
socababy, Can you place a link to Jeff's website on your post on page 1, so that newcomers can easily be directed to it? I really appreciated the info. you placed in your first post when I joined the meet thread. 
Ditto!
Too bad it is still 163 days away!Done!
It feels so good to have made my final payment for this cruise this morning!!
GOOD Morning, Happy Cruisers!
Thank youEspecially glad, since we now have more space on the Cartegena tour - two families have made other plans. (See the cruise web page - link in Jeff's siggie - under excursions for details. This tour will be "mobility impaired" friendly although there will be some walking involved.
How is your son doing?
He's home! But mainly because we've had 11 prior surgeries at the same hospital (6 more or less major, 5 involving eartubes or fixing the damage the tubes did).
The plastic surgeon told me this is the worst of all the palate repair surgeries he'll have (they took bone from both hips, mixed it with his own blood, a growth agent, and cadaver bone--- OK-- all I can think of is you're giving the kid anti-Zombie medication, right-- and I asked in joking, the lead surgeon got the joke and didn't think I was nuts). Though the next required one will be in late teens when they (and I quote plastic surgeon here) "cut apart the bones in his mid face and re-form the upper jaw and midface so that it's over the lower jaw and he doesn't look like a Pekinese dog.
He's doing okay, considering they shaved a lot of bone off both hips, and then ripped open his mouth and implanted that bone (plus cadaver bone, his blood, and some growth agent) and he came home with two IV lines into his hips and little bottles of painkillers to flow into the area.
He always has this reaction to anashtesia-- totally out of it for 36 hours or so. So this evening he was doing better. When the physical therapist came out (and I had told him, "to go home, you need to walk and be able to go up stairs") he walked pretty well, then up and down the required stairs.
The real drawback-- liquid diet until we see plastic surgery on Tuesday. So he can eat anything he'd like as long as it's turned into paste. Tried it tonight with fettucine Alfredo. He was not accepting that what he had (a mush of all the main ingredients) was anything like the main course. He asked, "Where's MY noodles?" And noodles, in whatever form are his favorite food. He can't even have oatmeal unless I puree it, but Cream of Wheat is okay.
He's going to be sooooo miserable until Tuesday. Even if I am a bad mom and let him eat water ice, ice cream and yogurt as his sole food sources until then. And he'll be made because he misses his meat and pasta.
Other than that, and the extreme pain he has in his hips, he's doing well. This was an important operation for him. When he came home with us in 2008 at three and a half, he spoke no language (hearing issues since remediated). Knew almost nothing except how to feed himself (was a whiz with chopsticks), make his bed, dress, brush teeth, go to the bathroom. Didn't respond to his Chinese name. Didn't talk. Didn't know colors, names of clothes, nothing. All he could do was take care of himself. And this was due to a survival instinct. We adopted him at 3 1/2 and he only had self-care skills. So I think we're doing okay. Of course any useful, cleaning up after himself behaviors were wiped out by three older siblings.
We know due to his chromosome disorder (he's missing a significant piece of the 18th chromosome) he'll never be "normal", but he's made great strides. And he has an amazing personality-- funny (even if it's at his expense), stubborn (which I'm sure has kept him alive and moving forward) and sweet as all get at when it'll get him what he wants.
Sorry for the TMI-- but I'm very happy right now, and still anxious. It's been a long, hard road for him.
Bless his sweet heart! Praying for a quick and uneventful recovery.
He's home! But mainly because we've had 11 prior surgeries at the same hospital (6 more or less major, 5 involving eartubes or fixing the damage the tubes did).
The plastic surgeon told me this is the worst of all the palate repair surgeries he'll have (they took bone from both hips, mixed it with his own blood, a growth agent, and cadaver bone--- OK-- all I can think of is you're giving the kid anti-Zombie medication, right-- and I asked in joking, the lead surgeon got the joke and didn't think I was nuts). Though the next required one will be in late teens when they (and I quote plastic surgeon here) "cut apart the bones in his mid face and re-form the upper jaw and midface so that it's over the lower jaw and he doesn't look like a Pekinese dog.
He's doing okay, considering they shaved a lot of bone off both hips, and then ripped open his mouth and implanted that bone (plus cadaver bone, his blood, and some growth agent) and he came home with two IV lines into his hips and little bottles of painkillers to flow into the area.
He always has this reaction to anashtesia-- totally out of it for 36 hours or so. So this evening he was doing better. When the physical therapist came out (and I had told him, "to go home, you need to walk and be able to go up stairs") he walked pretty well, then up and down the required stairs.
The real drawback-- liquid diet until we see plastic surgery on Tuesday. So he can eat anything he'd like as long as it's turned into paste. Tried it tonight with fettucine Alfredo. He was not accepting that what he had (a mush of all the main ingredients) was anything like the main course. He asked, "Where's MY noodles?" And noodles, in whatever form are his favorite food. He can't even have oatmeal unless I puree it, but Cream of Wheat is okay.
He's going to be sooooo miserable until Tuesday. Even if I am a bad mom and let him eat water ice, ice cream and yogurt as his sole food sources until then. And he'll be made because he misses his meat and pasta.
Other than that, and the extreme pain he has in his hips, he's doing well. This was an important operation for him. When he came home with us in 2008 at three and a half, he spoke no language (hearing issues since remediated). Knew almost nothing except how to feed himself (was a whiz with chopsticks), make his bed, dress, brush teeth, go to the bathroom. Didn't respond to his Chinese name. Didn't talk. Didn't know colors, names of clothes, nothing. All he could do was take care of himself. And this was due to a survival instinct. We adopted him at 3 1/2 and he only had self-care skills. So I think we're doing okay. Of course any useful, cleaning up after himself behaviors were wiped out by three older siblings.
We know due to his chromosome disorder (he's missing a significant piece of the 18th chromosome) he'll never be "normal", but he's made great strides. And he has an amazing personality-- funny (even if it's at his expense), stubborn (which I'm sure has kept him alive and moving forward) and sweet as all get at when it'll get him what he wants.
Sorry for the TMI-- but I'm very happy right now, and still anxious. It's been a long, hard road for him.
I'll have to watch to see if they drop the price like they did on our cruise.
