"1 Year" Since Nicci's Surgery

One year ago...right now...we were sitting in the waiting room at Primary Children's Hospital while our dear Nicci had surgery on her skull. Most of you know this...but for those of you who don't we'll give you a quick synopsis: When Nicci was born she had Craniosynostosis, specifically Metopic Synostosis. We took her to Dr.s here in Vegas because we knew something was wrong because her head was shaped like a football, but after tests and CT Scans they simply diagnosed her wrong and said she was fine, and sent us on our way. So we ignored the Dr.s and took her to Primary Children's Hospital in SLC to see the Dr.s there. Sure enough she had what we thought, Metopic Synostosis and if we would have waited another year she would have been blind and suffered forms of brain damage. After seeing the CT scans (the previous Dr.'s had taken) they performed immediate surgery. It was the scariest thing we had ever been through. We can't believe that one year ago we were sitting in the waiting room at Primary Children's Hospital with my parents for 7 long hours...waiting...and waiting...for our dear daughter to be out of surgery. When i gave Nicci a hug this morning my legs went completely weak as i remembered handing her over to the Anesthesiologist and watching her scream as she said, "Mama!" for the FIRST time. As the Dr. walked through the big white doors with Nicci, i slid down the wall in tears as Seth held me in his arms while we cried together. I remember thinking i'd never see my daughter again. We went back to the waiting room where Mom & Dad were waiting for us. We spent the next 7 hours waiting for phone calls from the operating room and Seth played some weird Donkey Kong Nintendo game they had set up to pass the time. Mom and Dad offered words of comfort and kept us thinking the best for all 7 hours; i don't know what we would have done without them.

.....and then finally....

In walked Nicci's Dr! He told us she was in the PICU and that we could go back and see her in 30 min. I felt like jello...my brain was flooded with so much emotion. She was ok...Heavenly Father had watched over our little angel and she was ok! During surgery they cut her from ear to ear and reconstructed the entire front of her skull and then reconstructed her eye sockets AND her eyebrow ridges. She had 9 IV's in her little body, 4 blood transfusions, and was in the intensive care unit for a week. It took a while for her to recover but she is looking SO good 1 year later! My parents were with us every step of the way, from Dr.s appts, to surgery, and all through recovery, they were there loving, supporting, and helping to build our little family into an indestructible unit! We learned and grew so much closer during this difficult and frightening time. Nicci has since had surgery on her eyes and is recovering very well from that as well. She will only have 1 more surgery in two years and then she should be done! If the Dr.s would have caught her condition when she 3 months old it would have been such an easy procedure with minimal scaring and NO follow up surgeries. (Darn the dumb dr.s here...grrr) But she is AMAZING, and SUCH a strong little girl, even when her eyes were swollen shut she would point in the direction of laughter or talking, and jabber along with everyone doing the same. We all learned first hand that 'what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger'! Nicci is such a perfect example to us. We are so very blessed to have such a remarkable little girl, but we are even more blessed to have such a loving Father in Heaven who is always there for us...no matter what.

-----After a couple of days they finally took off her bandages-----

----Here are the slideshows of her surgery----

The BEFORE and AFTER pictures of her head.











We thank our Heavenly Father every day for our precious Nicole Debra. This has been one of the best years of our lives...not the easiest but definitely the very best!

"Walk by faith and the way will be opened up"