This week Taylor received insurance approval for the facial reanimation surgery at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. He'll be the 31st person to get the procedure done there.
Taylor and his Mother will fly to Baltimore on Friday, May 22nd and the surgery begins at 10:30am on Tuesday, May 26th. He will be in surgery for 8 hours and just about every area of his face will be cut on - eyebrow, upper eyelid, lower eyelid, nose and cheek. The Surgeon said he may have to remove the Gortex band that was installed by Shands last year, so if that happens, he'll also be cut on the upper lip, lower lip and "smile crease" to the side of the corner of the mouth.
He'll stay in the hospital overnight, and remain in the Baltimore area for 2 weeks so they can monitor for infection, remove stitches, etc. The pain and swelling will certainly be worse than it was after the procedure at Shands last year, and that was pretty bad. He was in a lot of pain for about 5 days after the surgery and his face was swollen for over a month.
But, Taylor misses his smile - we all do. He's ready to endure the pain to get his smile back, even if it's only a partial smile. We want it back too.
He also realizes there is a chance that he may go through all of this and it may not work, or the results may not be what he had hoped, but he wants to take that chance. The previous 30 procedures have been successes, and based on Taylor's track record in recovery, he will be Success No. 31.
We now start the countdown - 18 days to go.
2 comments:
Blessings on both of you.
The songleader dude
Praying for you and a great outcome!
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