Halloween...Surgery...and Six Pints of Ice Cream!

Hi Everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a while - we have been busy bees! Dressed as gypsies, dolls, Evil Emperor Zurg, Pee Wee Herman, Jessy from toy Story and a Duck, the Linne-Laughlin family went to our friend's (Sean and Jenn) house for an outdoor Halloween potluck in their garage. This is now a tradition going on at least four years! While Dan, Gracie and Lucy were Trick-or-Treating their hearts out on a nice Utah evening, Abbie, Ericka and I stayed home to pass out candy to gobs of little ghouls, lots of princesses and many hungry teenagers. Our friends Keishel and Jon and their two beautiful girls came over to visit (also a Halloween tradition!) We all had a good time and it helped me take my mind of of Abbie's surgery scheduled for the next day. We had to check into Primary Children's Medical Center at 6:00 AM. So, I was up at 4:45 AM (actually, I don't think I slept) and got Abbie and all our hospital gear there on time. Dr. Morales, Dr. Park and Dr. Smyth performed the following procedures: ear drainage and tympanotomy tubes; hearing test; four cavities filled (we thought she would need crowns); one tooth extraction and root canal; teeth sealing and x-rays to determine the status of her permanent teeth. We learned that she has all her permanent teeth except for the left canine. This is good news because Dr. Yamashiro (cranio-facial dentist) will have her own teeth to work with and there will be less likelihood of rejection when she has her bone graft at age six. She also had her preliminary palate surgery and the installation of the hard palate prothesis with two screws...AND three skin tags removed from her right ear! Needless to say, she spent the first 24 hours sleeping on morphine and in a good deal of pain. However, children bounce back quickly! Before long, she was running the hallways, waving to the other patients, made friends with the nurses and making art work in the Forever Young Zone play and activity center for inpatients. We spent one night and now our little leaky faucet (drooling like a fire hose) is home and terrorizing her siblings instead. :) Now on Tylenol with Codeine, Abbie is eating and drinking fairly well, but it hurts me to watch her! Today we went to Burlington Coat Factory to purchase the girls new winter coats. When we returned home, there was a large package containing SIX pints of ice cream on dry ice for Abbie! Special thank you to my friends at work for this special treat! Wow! That's a lot of ice cream to eat!! Abbie's next surgery will be in 9-12 months and will consist of stitching closed the muscle tissue of her soft palate and finalizing the hard palate. Have a wonderful weekend. We love you all! Tracie