Holiday Mode to Preparing for Bone Graft Surgery

Today is the day after Christmas, and while I typically try to take a break from anything extra like blogging or serious life matters but today we are preparing for bone graft surgery tomorrow! Darrick and I are nervous and we are anxious! Tomorrow is surgery day for Emma, she will be having her bone graft surgery. Usually, we would never schedule a surgery this close to a holiday! But this particular surgery has to be done within a certain time frame according to how her teeth are coming in, and it must be done now. Over the last couple of months we have been to multiple appointments and even a procedure to prep for this procedure.

We haven’t had a big surgery like this in a long time! We have had multiple surgeries but a big one like this that will take weeks for recovery we haven’t had since her palate surgery. There has been so much going on with appointments, school, work, therapy appointments, and a pandemic I have been tapped out lately! I simply was trying to get my children to Christmas break without being touched by COVID.

This information is from the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. This is NOT the hospital system our surgery is through but they do a great job of explaining the procedure!

The full name of the procedure is Alveolar (al-vee-OLE-ar) Bone Graft. The Alveolar bone makes up the gum line or front portion of the roof of the mouth.

When there is a cleft in the alveolar bone, it means there is a fistula (FIST-yoo-la) or hole from the mouth to the nose (Emma has a fistula and sometimes if she’s drinking or eating food gets caught in there).

This cleft in the bone and gums prevents teeth from growing properly and the nose from developing normally.

Fixing the cleft to allow for proper tooth development is important to a child’s health because missing teeth can have a negative effect on eating, digestion, facial growth and appearance.

The alveolar bone graft repairs the hole in the gum line and stabilizes the bone arch, providing better support for the base of the nose and new bone for the roots of the developing teeth to grow into. The surgery usually is done when the child’s permanent canine teeth are three-quarters formed.

The doctor will make a 1- to 3-inch incision skin just over the hip bone and in the bone itself to remove the inner portion of the bone. This part of the bone, called cancellous (CAN-sell-us) bone, is soft and pasty and can be shaped to form the patch that will close the hole in the alveolar bone. Gum tissue inside your child’s mouth then will be closed around the bone and sutures or stitches will hold the tissue in place as it heals.

Medical Information: https://www.chp.edu/our-services/plastic-surgery/patient-procedures/alveolar-bone-graft (some info has been paraphrased)

As we prep for tomorrow, we have a pretty long list of things we do prior to surgery!

-Change the linens on the bed, so she comes home to fresh linens

-Make sure we have cash on us, sometimes hospitals don’t accept credit cards for parking so we are prepared just in case (if you’re anything like us, you have to actually make this a priority or we will forget)

-Vacuum everything! This clears the air in the house and removes dust.

– Pack an overnight bag! Surgery is an outpatient procedure, however, in the event she has to stay we need to have a bag packed! Due to the pandemic, once you leave out the hospital you cannot come back to stay. Emma picked me to stay so our bag will have items for she and I!

-We usually purchase food that she can eat after surgery. The difference with this procedure is that she will have to be on a liquid diet for a few days, and we don’t have all of the info on that yet. So between Darrick and family, we will get those items once we come home.

-Notebook: the notebook will help me to take notes while we’re at the hospital and keep track of pain medicine when we come home and anything new that I need to speak with the doctor about during follow up or that I would need to call about immediately.