5/14/10 Update from Liz

Just wanted to give you guys a quick update on Phyllis. She had about
7+ hours of surgery today to begin reconstruction of her face and
continue work on her eyes. It was a big day for her and lots of stress for her family awaiting the outcome. I just got off the phone with Myra, Haley's mom, and she and her dad had a lot of time to talk to the doctors today, which was great.

In terms of the future, they are still not giving any timelines, in fact Myra said one of the doctors mentioned that this is going to be a long road and that many people are still having surgeries a year out in accidents like this. The surgeries will lessen in intensity as time goes on. Almost all of the bones in Haley's face we crushed. They did not have a lot to work with. However, it looks like with the photos they were given and a great deal of specialists involved in the surgery, they reconstructed the base of her face out of titanium. That is great news! Her mom says she looks great and that base will give them the underlying structure to continue to build upon. Her nose is still problematic as there isn't really anything to build from there, but they will work on that over time. Haley has all her teeth, which is amazing! She has a space in the front, but seeing as she always wanted braces, it looks like that will be all it will take to fix that issue down the road.

Her eyes are another story. The right eye, which has been of great concern throughout, looks like it is not reacting at all. So, most likely that will have to be removed at some point. Haley's parents are hoping that decision can be made by Haley herself as they were told by the doctor today that they had more time to decide about that than they initially thought! Awesome news. And, best of all, her left eye is responding very well! The doc ran some tests and was very encouraged by how well her eye responded. So, as part of the facial base, they started to rebuild the right eye socket. They aren't doing much to the left eye yet, as they want to let it heal and get strong and let the swelling go down. So, they will address that issue as she heals.

Overall, after the stressful waiting, today was a wonderful day. The doctors told Haley's parents how well the surgeries went today and how they think she will heal quickly. The also mentioned that a number of the nurses and docs were so impressed by what a strong support network Haley has in her family and friends. They thought that would just help her get better faster and faster. So, it looks like docs and nurses gossip too!

I cannot express how encouraged Haley's mom sounded and also was relieved she got to have dinner and stay the night at Christie and Brad's house last night. Said she fell asleep right away. She's heading back to Corinth tomorrow for a few hours to check on the houses and pick up Trent's daughter, Abby (my new pal) to bring her back for the weekend. So, good news from Memphis. It's still a long road ahead, but she's so strong and soon they will be moving to get her off of the trach and breathing on her own.

Hope you are all smiling with me as this was a great day! I will update you again soon.

Love . . . Liz