Chloe's Appointment with the Surgeon

So things went well at the surgeons office.  I guess the good thing was that there were no significant surprises.  Typically in the US, they do the cleft lip repair around 3 months of age.  Then they repair the palate at 9-12 months of age before speech begins.  The doctor said that if it delayed much after that, the children will start compensating for the palate and develop some bad speech habits which are hard to break.  I think he seemed a little concerned because Chloe is older.  He feels like we need to do Chloe's surgery as quickly as possible.   He did comment that the good part is she is just learning the English language now, so her speech will already be delayed compared to most children her age.  So, hopefully that will mean she won't develop any bad habits.

The plan is for him to repair the lip and palate at the same time.  She will most likely only require an overnight hospital stay as long as she eats (and we know that is one thing our Chloe does well).  She also needs to see an ear nose and throat specialist because she will likely need tubes in her ears too.  Hopefully that can be done at the same time as the cleft lip and palate surgery.  The bad part sounds like after the surgery.  She has to wear something called a "No No Guard" for 3 weeks.  It is a splint that she wears that keeps her from bending her elbows.  It prevents her from messing with her lip and mouth.  How many battles do you think we will have about keeping those things on?  She is a very active and smart toddler and I am already imagining her finding a way to escape from those things.  The other bad thing is her eating. We will have to feed her with a syringe.  She cannot use a spoon or fork because it could damage the palate.  I did ask about things like hand feeding her soft eggs and he said maybe.  What you need to know about Chloe is that she wants what you have on your plate.  Do you think Kevin and Caleb will be up for pureed food for 3 weeks?  Sounds yummy!  Not sure how we will handle that.  Then after the recovery, he thinks she will need speech therapy, although the timing of that is unknown.

Over time she will need a few other procedures.  He predicts a touch up surgery around age 5.  A dental surgery around age 8-10 that will require a bone graft and a final touch up surgery around age 16-18. 

They are starting the insurance pre-certs, referrals to ENT, surgery schedules, etc and anticipate having her surgery in about 1 month.  So all and all we feel pretty good about it.  (You can ask me how good I am feeling during the 3 week post-op period).  Continued prayers would be appreciated.