(Skip to the end if you want the short version.)
There are these three brothers in our area who are plastic surgeons, and they all three work with the Commission. Or, at least they used to. Dr. Woody did Kate's repair, but unfortunately he is in semi-retirement because of health issues. Last time she was there she saw Dr. Andy instead. We noticed several differences in their approaches. First, Dr. Andy has a better bedside manner overall. It is hard to describe if you haven't met either of them in person, but he looks you in the eye and is easy to talk with. However, we adore Dr. Woody. Not only is he a fabulous surgeon, but we like several of his methods better. For example, Dr. Andy recommends no-nos for the arms and syringe feeding after surgery to prevent the child from messing up their stitches. While I know these things are common practice, Woody felt like it was more bother than help for a two-year old. He never made us use them.
Also, Dr. Woody believed that if the initial lip repair was good that the child should be a teen before deciding if they wanted cosmetic surgery to "clean up" the area (nose, lip, etc.). He always told Kate that her lip looked good. Last time Kate was at the Commission, Andy told Kate he wanted to fix it now. That was the first time anyone had ever told her that her lip needed to be fixed at all, and now it is an issue. So what we had before was a child who knew her lip was different but didn't care, and what we have now is a child who worries about her lip being different. Needless to say, Mama Bear is a bit miffed about that. I plan to have a chat with Dr. Andy in the near future about little girls, self-esteem, and body image.
Ahem. Back to Jack's appointment.
One the first things we noticed about Jack's cleft was that the gum line is somewhat intact. We were fully expecting it to be a complete cleft since the lip, nose, and palate are involved, but when we snuck a peek we got a surprise. The plastic surgeon (Dr. Andy) thinks that because Jack's gum line is partially intact, he probably won't need a bone graft when he is older. This is fabulous news, as this can be a very painful procedure. (Kate will probably have hers in the next couple of years, and we are not looking forward to it.)
Dr. Andy hopes to do the palate repair sometime this summer. Ideally we will coordinate the palate repair, get the ENT to put in tubes, and have a sedated ABR (hearing test) done, all at the same time. It will likely be a one night stay in the hospital, and he will be allowed to go home when he is eating/drinking/urinating. It won't be fun, but we will all survive.
Also, I got the physical copy of Jack's hearing test today. Not only is his hearing loss in the mild/moderate category, but according to that latest test he can hear at 20 decibels. The original report from China had him hearing at 45-100. (I am sure that all of the audiologists, doctors, and SLPs out there are shaking their heads at my lack of ability to use hearing test terminology appropriately, but that is the best I can do at the moment.) That is huge, and we are very happy.
Posts (so far) about Jack's cleft issues:
Posts (yet to come) about Jack's cleft issues:
- ENT (and probably more audiology)
- Early Intervention (this one might be a doozy)
- Speech (even though this is part of EI, it might get it's own post)
- Dentist (ie, How many teeth does Jack have, and will that be all?)
So, to recap: Good news - Probably no bone graft needed. Repair in the summer (July?). Probably will get tubes. Hearing is much better than expected.
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