Tough Words to Hear

It's Thursday morning and Shea is back at rehab. Yesterday we had an appointment with a plastic surgeon, Dr. McKay. We were hoping to hear good news -- as in, when the swelling goes down we'll only have some minor things to fix, but that was not the case. She will have a CT scan soon, but Dr. McKay said that it looks like when the swelling goes down, Shea's face will not be symmetrical at all. It looks like the orbit which should have grown together nicely has instead overlapped causing the bone to jut out. He will have to rebreak the bones around the orbit to repair that area. Also, he's not sure if her jaw may need to be rebroken as well. Dr. Carey did tell us that that was the most critical area to fix as the left mandible was pretty much destroyed, and he warned us that she may need future surgeries to get it just right. The superior maxillary bone, the bone above where her front teeth were, will need to be grafted from her hip, and her nose will be done last as it sets on top of that bone.

I could tell Shea was disappointed as Dr. McKay shared the news with her, but she held it together and asked many good questions. When we got to the car, the river of tears flowed and flowed. It's been 2 1/2 months now, and Shea is recovering slowly but nicely, and now the thought of having to go back in to have the face and jaw rebroken is a little overwhelming. So without sugar-coating anything, last night was pretty dark. We prayed together, cried together. These are times when Shea doesn't really like pep talks. It's okay to be sad and disappointed, but our tendency is to "fix it" and make everything better for our kids. We're learning.

As Shea was getting ready this morning, I asked her how she was doing. She flashed me her beautiful toothless smile, and said, "I really am better now." And we both knew she meant, "Joy comes [again] in the morning."

Thanks for listening. Thanks for praying.

Love,

The Hickoks