Post by ScoutMom on Jan 1, 2010 13:31:29 GMT -6
Hey, guys! Happy New Year to everyone. I just wanted to give ya'll an update on Alaura's medical status. She went to see the surgeon who had rebuilt her face on December 21st. The result was good news/bad news.... so I did not feel like posting anything just before Christmas.
Alaura's Ocular Surgeon had referred her back to the Craniofacial surgeon to see about getting laser treatments on the scar tissues around her eye because there is a large scar in the way of where Dr. Gilliland (ocular doc) wants to move her lower lid to. We went to see Dr. Burns (craniofacial doc) about the laser treatments. I was really excited to see him again because it had been a year since he last saw Alaura and I wanted to see what he thought of the progress on her eye. This is a brilliant surgeon-- he did a truly amazing job of rebuilding her face. There was such extensive damage to her face that there was not enough bone to use in the rebuilding. Dr. Burns had to, literally, reconstruct the right side of Alaura's face with plates-- he had to do it all from "scratch", so to speak. Other then Alaura's right cheek being just a SMALL amount lower then the left, Dr. Burns achieved perfection.
During the visit with Dr. Burns he gave his seal of approval on the eye work done by Dr. Gilliland. It was sort of funny, the way that he was holding her face and turning her head all directions-- like he was closely examining a piece of fine art instead of her head. LOL! Actually, since it has cost $600,000+ to build that face, I guess that it IS a pretty pricey piece of artwork! LOL!
The bad news is that there has been too much tissue damage to do the laser treatments. Ironically, the damage was caused by all the surgeries and not the original injury. But, the good news is that Dr. Burns feels that SKIN GRAFTS will be effective in getting the desired result. He is very confident that he can get her face to where it needs to be with the grafts. Now, that is a much more complicated procedure then the laser treatments would have been-- and will probably involve and overnight stay in the hospital. That's a bummer. But... more good news is that Dr. Burns thinks that he can coordinate with Dr. Gilliland to do their surgeries at the same time! So, we are still looking at just ONE more surgery! This will be done in February or March. I am waiting to hear from the doctors about time frames. Hope to get info next week on this.
I also wanted to let you all know that Dave (SteepSlope) sent us the check for the fundraiser money. $3,039!!! It is safely tucked away in Alaura's savings account, ready to be used for her surgery in March. We are so very thankful for this blessing-- thank you all so much!!! We also had some more good news in regards to money. Jesse's insurance's renewal was in December. They had an option to upgrade our insurance plan, which would reduce our out of pocket out of network payment from $7500 a year to $4,000 a year! Plus, the in network amounts would be reduced, too. We are waiting to see if this has been approved-- so please say a little prayer that we can get this! It would be an amazing help in paying all of these medical bills! It might just keep us from going bankrupt.
You PWD guys were a huge blessing to our family in 2009. I hope that you will share in our joy as Alaura finally recovers from her ordeal in 2010. I really feel like this is the year that we can put the saga behind us.
Thanks!
Teresa
Alaura's Ocular Surgeon had referred her back to the Craniofacial surgeon to see about getting laser treatments on the scar tissues around her eye because there is a large scar in the way of where Dr. Gilliland (ocular doc) wants to move her lower lid to. We went to see Dr. Burns (craniofacial doc) about the laser treatments. I was really excited to see him again because it had been a year since he last saw Alaura and I wanted to see what he thought of the progress on her eye. This is a brilliant surgeon-- he did a truly amazing job of rebuilding her face. There was such extensive damage to her face that there was not enough bone to use in the rebuilding. Dr. Burns had to, literally, reconstruct the right side of Alaura's face with plates-- he had to do it all from "scratch", so to speak. Other then Alaura's right cheek being just a SMALL amount lower then the left, Dr. Burns achieved perfection.
During the visit with Dr. Burns he gave his seal of approval on the eye work done by Dr. Gilliland. It was sort of funny, the way that he was holding her face and turning her head all directions-- like he was closely examining a piece of fine art instead of her head. LOL! Actually, since it has cost $600,000+ to build that face, I guess that it IS a pretty pricey piece of artwork! LOL!
The bad news is that there has been too much tissue damage to do the laser treatments. Ironically, the damage was caused by all the surgeries and not the original injury. But, the good news is that Dr. Burns feels that SKIN GRAFTS will be effective in getting the desired result. He is very confident that he can get her face to where it needs to be with the grafts. Now, that is a much more complicated procedure then the laser treatments would have been-- and will probably involve and overnight stay in the hospital. That's a bummer. But... more good news is that Dr. Burns thinks that he can coordinate with Dr. Gilliland to do their surgeries at the same time! So, we are still looking at just ONE more surgery! This will be done in February or March. I am waiting to hear from the doctors about time frames. Hope to get info next week on this.
I also wanted to let you all know that Dave (SteepSlope) sent us the check for the fundraiser money. $3,039!!! It is safely tucked away in Alaura's savings account, ready to be used for her surgery in March. We are so very thankful for this blessing-- thank you all so much!!! We also had some more good news in regards to money. Jesse's insurance's renewal was in December. They had an option to upgrade our insurance plan, which would reduce our out of pocket out of network payment from $7500 a year to $4,000 a year! Plus, the in network amounts would be reduced, too. We are waiting to see if this has been approved-- so please say a little prayer that we can get this! It would be an amazing help in paying all of these medical bills! It might just keep us from going bankrupt.
You PWD guys were a huge blessing to our family in 2009. I hope that you will share in our joy as Alaura finally recovers from her ordeal in 2010. I really feel like this is the year that we can put the saga behind us.
Thanks!
Teresa