Here's our little cutie before surgery...we had just put up the Christmas tree and he was SO excited. He was literally jumping up and down! It was just pure joy and to watch it was such a treat. Grif had his latest surgery on Wednesday, Dec 3rd. It was a tough one and the surgeons said they didn't do quite as much as they intended. They had done enough for one day. They did a bone graft on one side instead of two so as not to compromise the vascular integrity of the middle section where his two front teeth are. They took the bone/marrow from his hip so that area is by far more sore than his mouth. They also removed the flap that connected his cheek & roof of the mouth from the last surgery. And one more thing, they repaired an anterior fistula (hole in the front of the roof of the mouth) which they said was quite difficult. Apparently there is alot of scar tissue up there so we're hoping it will stay intact. There is always the chance that a fistula will develop, that happens. And last but not least, the ENT cleaned out his ears and said that they look good. The tubes that were put in Nov 2007 are now gone but one ear still has the hole from the tube but is expected to heal in the next few months.
His recovery is progressing well but he's having the most problem with his hip. It's very sore and has him walking like a slow little old man. He's starting to get back to his normal silly personality so we know he's getting back to normal.
We do have one more of these surgeries, to do the bone graft on the other side, in the spring of 2009. I'm not looking forward to that but at least we know what to expect and how long the recovery will be.
