Surgery completed...recovery's a bummer so far...

Dear all,

Thank you for your prayers for John and his medical team today.  And thank you for praying for John's Mom and Dad also!  Dr. Allen reported that he closed the hole in the back of John's palate, overlapping the muscles in the back  of his mouth.  He hopes this will strengthening the closure and put the muscles back into alignment.  He also elongated his palate, which will help John with pronunciation.  In addition, he did some major repair on John's lip.  He reconnected the two muscles on the top lip, cleaned out the scar tissue in John's nose and brought the lip itself into alignment.

We knew were in good hands when a Dr. in his fourth year of ENT residency and the anesthesiologist both praised Dr. Allen as an excellent surgeon.

John has had a hard time since the surgery.  Although his pain is fairly controlled, he has been stripped from his primary self-soothing method - that of sucking his fingers.  He hates the tape on his lip, the name arm band on his wrist, the port in his arm and even the oxygen blood monitor (the red light) on his toe.  Any time a nurse comes into the room he starts crying.    Poor boy.  It might be a hard night...we are praying for a better day for him tomorrow.

Please pray that he will submit to the medical protocols and also the need to keep his fingers out of his mouth.  

We are grateful for your prayers and support.

Sincerely,
Laurie and Ron