Before Jaw Surgery

This Friday at 11:30 Cade will be having jaw surgery (distraction osteogenesis). The doctor is planning to make two incisions in his neck and then cut apart his jaw on both side. Then a device will be placed inside that separates the two pieces. There will be a pin placed on the device that will stick out behind his ears on both sides of his face. He will look a little like Frankenstein. His hospital stay should be about 1-2 days depending on his ability to get off of the ventilator (we are not anticipating any problems.) He will have the pins out of his face for two weeks and Shane and I will turn them twice a day to push his jaw forward. After two weeks, the jaw should be where the doctor wants it and we will remove the pins. The device will remain in his mouth for two months while we wait for the new bone to harden. Then he will have surgery again to remove the device. The doctor said that we will be surprised about how little pain there is. It is very likely that a short time after his second surgery, he will get his trach out. But there are no promises. I wanted to include a before picture because he will look drastically different. Please be thinking and praying for Cade Friday morning!