I know
many have checked back to see how our daughter came out on the first bone graft we had in December of 2007. I REALLY
wanted to see success, but it was a complete failure. We have since changed over to a different surgeon in hopes of
a positive outcome, had the 2nd bone graft procedure...and have moved on to the next stage...BRACES!!
We switched to a different surgeon due to the fact that
nothing had changed at all from the last surgery, and our surgeon couldn't give us any of the following: 1.
a definitive reason for the failure, 2. a change in Savannah's status, 3. how he would modify the surgery
to get a successful graft or even any hint that he ever did things different. Given how expensive and painful this surgery
was for Savannah, I was panicked over coming into this same surgery again with the same surgeon. I was having nightmares
about it. There wasn't one thing that I felt good about by repeating the surgery again.
I started
doing research and asking around for some referrals for a 2nd opinion. We ended up visiting with a maxillofacial surgeon
from Omaha about our situation, and he suggested we NOT do the same type of graft we had done before, given the failure of
the previous graft. Instead, he suggested using bone morphogenic protein-2. I had heard about using this material
2 years prior, but since it hadn't yet been FDA approved for this procedure, and none of the plastic surgeons were using
it, I was hesitant about doing it. However, we were up against a wall.
Our plastic
surgeon wouldn't use this material, and he wouldn't do it differently. The oral maxillofacial surgeon wouldn't
do the traditional graft, due to its failure. So, after considering the options, we decided to allow Savannah to become
the very FIRST patient in Nebraska to undergo this procedure...and also the first patient of our surgeon that he had used
this material on as well.
As strange as it seems, once I made the decision to have Savannah switch surgeons
and go with something totally different...all of my fears and stress just went away. I know this was a God thing in
my life! He was speaking to me throughout the process, and I knew we had made the right decision.
Long
story short, Savannah had the bone graft using the bmp-2 in November 2008. She didn't even cry when she went back
this time, and was in no pain when she woke up. We also didn't have any nausea at all this time around. We
went home from the hospital the same day with little pain at all. The previous surgery she spent 3 days in the hospital,
and was in unbearable pain at times. She had surgery on a Thursday and was back in school on Tuesday! The recovery
was very quick...and we have a successful result so far! We're hoping that the use of bmp-2 will become the NEW
gold standard for alveolar grafting in children with cleft lip/palate...but it could take a long time before the plastic surgeons
adopt something different from what they've done for the last 30 years.
We were excited to get her braces finally
put on a few weeks ago. This part of the recovery will help the bone to fill in around the teeth that they're moving,
and make a dramatic difference in her teeth, bite and profile. We're anxiously watching for the changes! Although
we struggle sometimes with brushing and waxing the braces, we're certainly glad to be past the graft.
