Successful travels

We are just back from a week in Paris, and Leah came with us. We had no issues with her with the travel, though her distractor did set off the metal detector as we were going into the Eiffel Tower. It didn't set off the detectors at the airport, so I'm assuming that those are newer and are adjusted to accommodate for medical devices.

The distractor did get a lot of attention in Paris, however. We got lots of curious stares on the Métro and on the streets, and two people did stop me to ask about it. I talked with one man for about 10 minutes about her condition and about the surgery, though it wasn't easy for me because I didn't know the French word for either "distractor" or for "craniofacial" surgeon. It took me a few minutes to convey to him that it wasn't a dermatology issue, but once I explained that the implant was hard and was not permanent, he seemed to understand. He kept repeating how impressed he was with the treatment since he had never seen anything like it in France, and that he wasn't sure that French doctors would even do such a thing. I did say that the treatment was still relatively new in the United States as well, but he still seemed quite impressed (and perhaps a little horrified?) that we had consented to having this done to our baby!

Now that we are home, we are starting to make preparations for the next surgery. We will go in next Friday, on January 31st, for her pre-op appointments, and will then be back on Monday morning for the surgery itself. Dr. Taylor indicated that it's a shorter surgery than the last one, and that her recovery time will be shorter as well. If all goes as planned, we expect to spend one night in the hospital with her, and perhaps one additional night in Philadelphia just to make sure things are ok, then return home on Wednesday. He said it may be 5-7 days for her to feel back to normal, and for her swelling to go down completely, so she may be "off her feet" for that whole week.

I am certainly looking forward to seeing what she will look like without that bump, and I also want to see if there will be any noticeable scar tissue in the area of her forehead where the distractor ended. There has been some on-and-off swelling in that area, so I am hoping that there's no long-term impact to her skin there. We will also need to see what Dr. Taylor says about helmet molding therapy, as he has mentioned it a few times and it seems likely that she will need one. If she does, though, he says that she may only need it for a few months.