Lacey update 12/15/07

Hello friends and family,

Lacey had her pre op appt on Thursday 12/13 and Dr. Downs discovered that Lacey's nose cartlidge had softened since he last saw her in August. He decided to only do the lip reconstruction surgery, which we are very happy he decided to do. He took a piece of Lacey's tissue below her lower lip and implanted it to her upper mid lip area, which had an amazing outcome. She now has a normal upper lip area below the middle of the nose. Before, she did not have any tissue in that area and her lip had receeded, not allowing her to close her mouth. He placed a flap between her upper and lower lip, which connects it with a nerve and blood flow and sewed the upper and lower together in the middle of her lips. It was a 4 hour procedure and the outcome is so amazing. Lacey cannot talk, except to say things out of the corners of her mouth, which she is getting better at each day. She is receiving nourishment through a straw in the corner of her mouth. Milkshakes, smoothies, soup, etc.

Today we went for her post op appt. and we told Dr. Downs that when Lacey woke up from surgery, her right side was slower than normal. If you remember, she was completely paralyzed on her right side, so that was a worry. He ordered her to the ER to have a CT scan, which came out normal. The Neurosurgeon thought an MRI might be wise, but Lacey was very tired and ready to go home. We will see how things progress over the next few days. We are hoping it was just a side effect of the anesthesia and things will continue to improve. If they do not, we will go in next week and have the MRI.

We are so very thankful for Dr. Downs and the miracle he has accomplished and look forward to the lip contouring and the nose reconstruction in 6 weeks.

We are also very thankful for everyone's prayers and for all of your calls, either to us or to Liz. We are all good.

Lacey is a very courageous person.

God Bless you all.

Mike, Shelly and Lacey