(Top) Jamie Van Dee, before surgery, displays a new baby calf. (Left) During Jamie's recent surgery, doctors rebuilt her nostril passageway and removed scar tissue above her top lip.
by Andrea Farrington
When Jamie Van Dee entered the hallways freshman year, we all noticed that she had a love for farming and being around her animals; she is a farm girl at heart. She says, “I would rather be at home with my animals doing something productive than sitting in school.”
Jamie’s can-do personality relates as much to her love of nature as it does to her need for change.
Flashback 1994. The prospect of a new baby promises new adventures, new giggles, new smells and even if the ultrasound reveals physical concerns, excitement still grows as the baby matures.
Jamie Van Dee was one of those babies whose ultrasound brought hours of worry, which were confirmed when she was born with a cleft lip. She has had three surgeries from the time she was born. The surgeries were for medical reasons not cosmetic and, as a baby, there were no health concerns.
This surgery at the University of Iowa Hospitals on Feb. 1 was the final stage as long as her body can hold the reconstruction.
Jamie was in the operating room 5-½ hours - the longest surgery that she has endured. Dr. John Canady cut the columella,the small central column of sterile tissue between the nostrils, and then took fatty tissue from her hip to put it into her cheekbone area and her top lip.
Canady also did some touch up work on the scars from the past surgeries. He put stents inside her nose to keep the nostrils from collapsing: one was stitched in and one just sat in Jamie’s nose.
He also put a cast on her nose to help reduce swelling and to keep it stable. Her nose has been brought up on the left side and her top lip was made slightly bigger and doctors revised the scar on her lip.
Jamie returned to the doctor Thursday, Feb. 10 to find out that the stents were not as little as she thought, get tubes put in her nose and that her healing is going smoothly. She goes for her next check up on March 7.
This spring, with sunshine, fresh air and a hope that surgeries are behind her, Jamie will be in the barn helping bring new life to her baby calves.
No comments:
Post a Comment