Taylor...another try at reconstruction

Well, November is here and it's time for Taylor to get his new implant. After having a 3-D CT Scan done, a replica was cast of Taylor's skull and a team of engineers made an implant to mimic the right side of Tay's face. We made a trip to Albuquerque to look at the model of the implant and give the thumb's up. You will find the replica with the model (in red).

We decided to not go as far into the mid-forehead as the model and Dr Escudero felt that we would probably be best to split the implant into two pieces in order to make the insertion easier and not quite so complex. Also, missing the nerves to the brow and the lower jar for movement was a concern.
Taylor decided to grow his beard for "No Shave November", thus the hairy face. He felt that he would end up losing all the facial hair for surgery so he cut down to this lovely mustache...
Yikes...i know!!

Moving onto the evening of Monday, November 28, Bryan and I drive to Albuquerque to meet with Taylor and the sweet boy was clean shaven. Hallelujah! I didn't take a picture, but he was back to the baby face which I love. He did it for his pre-op appointment with Dr Escudero, and I for one was thrilled!!

Tuesday am and Dr E came in to check on Taylor before meeting him in surgery.After the picture, off came the fluffy hat and now the shaving begins (much to Taylor's horror--he had decided to grow his hair, too) then the sharpy came out to mark the areas where he would be cutting and the implant would be covering. You can see the remnants of the past surgery where the bone paste was applied and turned rocky.

Half of the implant will be inserted through the side of the temple and the other inserted through his mouth and up into his cheek are and screwed down with 2 screws--careful to steer clear of the sinuses. Surgery lasted about 2 and a half hours and we were told it was a great success by Dr. Escudero. Taylor was pretty swollen post-op and somewhat queezy.

After sending a picture of him to his sister, Lauren, she replied with a sweet note and a picture from Taylor's favorite niece saying "We will get through this together". Taylor grinned as big as he could at that point at the sweet look-alike picture that he got from his sister.


The giant pillow on his head is an icepack...
All was well for about the first hour, and then the nausea and the vomiting hit---ugh. This continued for the rest of the afternoon. Jump ahead for a few hours---Taylor's nurse, Allison thought maybe it would be best for Taylor to be admitted as an inpatient....to spend the night since they couldn't get him settled. A phonecall with the Dr and that plan was nixed. He felt that if we could just get him transported it would be less chance of infection and of course the bed would be MUCH more comfortable. The Dr upped the drugs and Taylor was settled long enough for us to load him up and get him to the hotel. One more time losing his cookies and he was then settled for the night! Hallelujah!!


After an appointment the next morning where his turban (and alot of the pressure) was removed


we made the trip to Clovis.

Taylor hit the couch with Oliver and this is where he has remained. He will have 6 days to recoop before he will catch a flight home via Great Lakes Airlines to prepare to go back to work managing Lids Hat Store. Check back for updates on our guy to see how he is doing. Oh! And btw...he ate 1/2 a can of chicken noodle soup tonight and kept it down!! Now that's what we call PROGRESS!!

Implant In...6 months later, Implant Out

Well, it's been awhile, so i'll briefly just touch on what has landed us in Albuquerque. A few weeks ago, Taylor began to have pain in his left cheek area (more than usual) where his implant was put 6 months ago. On the outside of the skin there was a blister.
Pictures were emailed to his Dr in Dallas 1/5/10, and he felt that Taylor was okay, but to err on the side of caution, he prescribed an antibiotic for a few days. Jump ahead a few days and Taylor began to feel better...a few more days go by and the pain is back, it's intense and the blister is not really a blister but a large red area with some bruising.
We made a trip to Albuquerque 1/15 where we saw Dr. Ronald Escudero who agreed that there was an infection raging in the cheek area and even went so far to use large needle/syringe to pull out some of the liquid infection. A scalpel was then used to create a drainage hole so the area could breathe while Taylor was again put on antibiotics, a much stronger dosage that would hopefully kill the infection. While in the office, the Dr discussed with Taylor about how he should be sleeping (not on the Left Cheek Implant) it came to light that due to a 90% blockage in the right nostril, Taylor couldn't lie on his right side and breathe comfortably. So, Taylor was told that someday, further down the road he really needed to get that fixed.
No such luck on clearing up the infection and the implant, in it's state of rejection, it actually started to work it's way out and 2 days before surgery began poking out of the skin right beneath the eye---so poor guy, now he has 2 open holes under his left eye.
This all leads us to today where we are currently in Homewood Suites in Albuquerque where Taylor is post-op from having the implant removed (through the mouth), having a septoplasty where the cartlidge was straighted and the turbinate surgery as well (http://www.ent-consult.com/turbinatesurgery.html). It was rough getting through recovery post-op (3 hours) but we finally got him back to the hotel. We will see the Dr tomorrow afternoon for a post-op visit and then hopefully be on our way home by mid-afternoon.
Taylor will stay home for the rest of the week and our hope is that he will be able to go back to Lubbock the beginning of next week so he can resume his classes in Criminal Justice. I'm sure his professors are missing his quick wit and winning attitude in his classes.

12 Days Out and then some.......

Above picture taken Wednesday, Aug 26th, 13 days postop ---After a concern that the cheek implant had possibly moved, Taylor was seen in Dr. Genecov's office on Thursday afternoon in Dallas. The Dr. assured Taylor that the implant was in the proper place and that the problem noticed the prior day was from his prosthetic eye. The eye had moved during the night due to pressure placed on the side of the face. This had never happened before and so there was concern on our part as well. All turned out just fine and we are all relieved and also glad that Taylor was able to speak to the Dr about any questions or concerns that he had about how he has been coming along.

Friday, August 21...

Taylor is feeling better and just kind of doing his own thing. Here is a picture of him after he woke up on friday a.m. You will notice the swelling/puffiness under the left eye and out towards the cheek which has turned out to be extremely firm (unsure what it is that we are feeling?? note into the Dr.'s office) and the upper lid has not poked out from all the swelling that see is seen.

Post-Op

Post-Op Day 5

On the Road to the Dr. on Monday, Taylor was having a struggle with Nausea although not alot of pain. Those on the Central Expressway got more than they bargained for if they looked over at Tay at just the right time. By the time we got to the Dr, he had lost most of the liquids he had taken for the morning.

Dr Genecov left town during the weekend and Dr. Barcelo did Taylor's followup and agreed to let him head home to NM. He changed Taylor to all liquid medications with the hope that the change in meds would keep down the nausea and allow Taylor to begin eating and regain strength. We left immediately after the appointment, headed to our headquarters in Arlington, packed up and were on the road a little after 4 Texas time. A quick trip through Abilene, Taylor, Oliver and I made it back to Clovis a quarter til 11 NM time.


Sunday---Day 4 Post-Op.

This is the day that Taylor had been looking for. Back to solid foods! He opened the morning with half a mini-bagel. Able to eat some, get out of bed a for quite awhile. Thought that he was on the mend until he woke up on Monday nauseated again... Face looking good symmetrically on the temple and cheek. Looking forward to the "final" look after swelling reduces more. Bruising is starting to lighten.




Saturday---NOT a good day... 3rd day post-op



Taylor woke up this morning feeling awful. Had vomitting all day, and had to make a late night run to the all-night Walgreens Pharmacy in Longview to get some Phenergen so the boy could get some rest and some relief. It appeared the swelling had moved into the other side of his face and the area under his chin/neck took on some swelling as well. Spent the whole day in bed except the times that he attempted to sit in the LR and ended up back in bed.


No Posting for Friday.

Way too busy shuffling Bryan to the airport,
sending out invites for "2 Shabby Divas" and moving to
Holly Lake Ranch for the weekend.

Thurs Evening...

Ahhhhh....Taylor came home today! Well, to Aunt Holly's & Uncle Jim's. I got the call that he had been discharged a little before 11 a.m. so off I went to go get him and his pa from the hospital.

Tay made the 40 minute trip back to the house just fine and then had some chicken noodle soup (swallow noodles, don't chew) & strawberry cheesecake yogurt for dessert, at the table.

A little downtime in bed and on the computer in the afternoon, and then up for some Ramen (swallow the noodles, don't swallow) for dinner and again---at the table!

We feel that he is moving along just fine at a pretty rapid pace. Swelling is starting to subside and pain is not too horribly bad.

It appears with the swelling of his face that he had a wisdom tooth pulled and his suffering with extensive swelling. He says the side of his face is numb and basically can't feel when touching it.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers...

Morning After....

So it's the morning after and Bryan has sent me via IPhone a morning pic of Taylor. Dr. came in at 6:45 and pulled the drainage tube. Taylor is keeping down his liquid diet and pain is minimal.

Still unable to tolerate an icepack to the face so his swelling may be more than expected, but hey---if he's okay with it, then I am!

Off to the store to get his liquid diet for the week!!

We are told he will be discharged somewhere between 11 and noon...yay!