Palate Surgery Recovery

I am thankful I acknowledged what I thought was best for my family and insisted that Matteo's palate surgery be done while I'm on family leave, even if that meant scheduling the surgery less than a month after he came home. His doctor was in support of this, but I know some adoptive parents recommend waiting until your child has had more time to adjust.  Unfortunately, I don't have the benefit of time.  And now that we're in the recovery phase of his surgery, I have no idea how we'd properly care for Matteo during his estimated two-week recovery with both of us back at work.

Matteo was in quite a bit of discomfort throughout the night, but when I arrived at the hospital this morning, he was contently sitting in Chris' lap.  He was not happy to see Daddy leave though and we went and raided the toy closet in attempt to cheer him up.  

We were late being discharged from the hospital today because the nurses were concerned that Matteo's pain wasn't properly under control.  With a two-and-a-half-year-old who doesn't talk and is still learning English, it's difficult to establish what he's feeling.  His crying could have been because his dad, who had spent the night with him in the hospital, just left, because his pain medication was wearing off, or because his sister was sitting on the other side of his hospital room eating a sandwich and he wasn't allowed to have one.

No sandwiches are allowed because Matteo is on a liquid diet and that, more than pain management, is going to be the hardest part of his recovery.  At first I didn't think it would be so bad.  He just needs to eat soft foods, right?  Then I saw the remains of his breakfast, which included pureed scrambled eggs.  I never thought eggs could inflict much damage, but when they say "liquid" diet, they aren't kidding.  The nurse sent back the yogurt she ordered for Matteo when she saw fruit chunks in it.  I learned that scrambled eggs and yogurt with chunks and anything soft with lumps in it has to wait until week three. The doctor had explained that his repaired palate is so fragile right now that a soft poke with a finger could pierce it.  Yikes!

Another adoptive mom of two kids with cleft lip and palate had warned me about the food restrictions during recovery from palate surgery, but she insisted it wasn't so bad.  Her children had also had their surgeries shortly after coming home and she said that after living in an orphanage without a lot of variety in their diet and where children are bottle-fed much longer, they hadn't yet developed a taste for real food.  But Matteo knows real food.  He had lived with a foster family who fed him well and when he came to us, he refused the bottle the orphanage had insisted he was still drinking from. 

Dinner was no better than our experience in the hospital.  He cried and cried as he watched everyone else enjoying their dinners of solid food while his mashed potatoes and bowl of pureed meat and carrots baby food got cold.  He didn't even show interest in chocolate pudding.  I'm hoping that when he is in less pain he'll be more interested in eating, even if the food is pureed, but I'm nervous it's going to be a long two weeks.