Thursday, May 20, 2010

A Little Math

So, after last post, you might have whipped out your scrap piece of paper and white crayon and tried to figure out how we went from “6-9 weeks” and after the doctor mentioned “a few more weeks of distracting”-- how in the world that got up to 13 weeks.....sorry.  I had a bunch of people swarming me like monkeys in the forests while I was trying to compose that last post.

Here  is how it works.  For every week of active distracting, (turning her pins to lengthen her jaw), we keep the distractors in, double the active distracting time, locked into place, for “consolidation phase”.  Consolidation is the process of the bone filling in where we made a gap in it with the distractors.

Story problem.....real life.....Lily’s distractors are turned every day for 28 days.  How long will her distractors stay on past those 28 days??  How long, total, will Lily have distractors on each side of her face?

Okay, turn upside down, I have the answer written upside down  at the bottom of the page.

Never mind, that was too hard.  Eight more weeks after four weeks of distraction, for 12 weeks total, although Dr. B. psyched us out yet again, and didn’t tell us there would be a week lag time between surgery and starting distraction, so tack on another week....13 weeks total.....Look!! That matches the number up there in the first paragraph.  Oh.....and actually, it could be even LONGER.  Dr. B said today as well.....”Double distraction time is the least I would leave the appliance in, so it could be longer than that.”  Funny I never heard least in our previous conversations.

If you saw a lady walking through the garage at the hospital today, with the little girl below, and the lady was crying.....that was me.....it all can be a bit overwhelming.  I am so thankful Lily is doing great, she really is an amazing girl.  I just didn’t feel equally amazing today.  Lily, stay amazing.  Mama will continue to take lessons.

Over and out,
--Ma

No comments:

Post a Comment