Another notch in my belt

On Friday, Emily managed to pull her sutures out of the tip of her tongue. This meant that the tip of her tongue was dangling from the roof of her mouth. I spent about an hour on the phone getting in touch with plastic surgery to find out what to do about that. I was concerned that leaving it would cause irritation and potential harm to her tongue flap (which was still attached) and the tip of her tongue.

I finally got the go ahead to cut the sutures so I cut the suture between the roof of her mouth and the tip of her tongue and then removed the sutures from her tongue.

Pros: New skill learned--I can remove sutures!
Cons: Yuck. And the tip of Emily's tongue is no longer attached to the roof of her mouth.

AND...then on Saturday she managed to pull part of the actual flap away from the roof of her mouth. That wiring-the-jaw-shut thing cannot come soon enough.

I do want to clarify, though, that the difficulty in getting Emily's mouth to heal is not her fault. There is definitely something about the tissue in her mouth that does not want to grow together. But she is not helping by allowing the tissue to remain stationary and heal (she is 8, after all--you try not talking for three weeks!). That's the idea behind wiring her jaw shut.

Thank you to all of you who are praying. I am truly coveting your prayers both for her healing and for strength and patience for all of us. Emily doesn't complain but we went out to lunch yesterday for Danielle's birthday and she just sat and watched Alex move his pizza from the plate to his mouth...over and over again. I had brought all of her drinks, but she really wants to eat again.