Not only was tuesday Daddy’s birthday (Happy Birthday Daddy!) but it was also the day of Isabel’s pre-op.

It was a good chance for us to ask all our questions and find out exactly what would be happening next week.

On Tuesday 22nd, we will be admitted at 7.15am and they expect that Isabel will be 1st or 2nd on that day’s operating list. The operation will last about 1 1/2hrs and what they will do is take small pieces of skin from the inside of her mouth and basically move them across to seal the gap.

After the operation is over, she will be moved to the Intensive Care unit – this is not because she will be poorly but more for observation……..as you can imagine, having swelling so near to an airway is something they want to keep a close eye on!

She will stay in Intensive Care over night and then will go onto the ward the next day – they expect that she will stay on the ward for roughly 2-3 days…….her length of stay will be governed by how quickly she recovers and gets back to her usual eating/drinking routine.

We had been a bit concerned as we had read that she may have to wear arm splints to stop her from getting at her stitches etc. – we were VERY pleased to discover that this wouldn’t be the case………can you imagine how grumpy she would have been if she had been unable to do any crawling?!

With a bit of luck, we’ll make it home for the weekend and we will be able to get on with things as we were.