On Monday morning, my little guy and I had a date downtown. I wish I could say that we enjoyed a really fun outing together doing something that we both really enjoyed, but that simply wasn’t the case. Our time was still fun, but we spent the morning together at the children’s hospital for his follow up at the Craniofacial clinic.
In the day to day of life with three little ones, I often forget that Brady used to have a cleft palate. In those early days and months, I went through a bit of a grieving process. My little guy was officially a birth defect statistic {or birth difference as they say at the clinic}…and it made me so sad.
His condition was not life threatening and his specific cleft palate was very mild, affecting the back half of the roof of his mouth only. It wasn’t even visible on the outside. It was very much “fixable,” but I was still sad that our little boy would have to drink from a special bottle and undergo a major surgery at such a young age.
Time went on and he thrived, gaining weight and growing very well. He struggled a little bit with fluid in his ears due to the cleft palate, but again, nothing life threatening or really scary in the scheme of things. He was doing so well that they scheduled him for his cleft palate repair & ear tubes when he was about 6.5 months old.
I realized that morning that it has been just over 2 years since Brady had his cleft palate repair surgery. I hadn’t even thought about it until we walked into the hospital, near the wing where we handed our son over to the anesthesiologist. Handing him off on surgery day was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done as a parent.
I’m so thankful we are on the other side and that Brady has done so well since his surgery. Even though that time seems like so long ago, I don’t want to forget the miracle that happened on that surgery day. It’s miraculous to me that God gives doctors the knowledge and skill to be able to operate on the roof of an infant’s mouth and that the human body can immediately begin the healing process.
Other than one rough night in the hospital trying to manage his pain, his recovery was very smooth and he healed very quickly.
When we visit the Craniofacial Care clinic every six months, Brady sees all of the doctors in the same day. It’s a really helpful set up and fosters a team approach when treating patients.
Here’s the brief update from our appointment today.
Since the palate was successfully closed, her main concern is Brady’s speech. Since she moved around lots of muscles in the roof of his mouth, she wants to make sure those muscles are working properly in order to allow him to speak well. She was extremely pleased with his speech and said that “no alarms were going off” by what she was hearing from him. She was pleased to hear him say some “P” and “B” sounds, since those require pressure to build up in the mouth. This means that air isn’t leaking out, which is a good thing.
There are no dental concerns at this point, although he does have some crowding. His cleft was very mild and it appears that his teeth have not been affected.
She was very pleased with his speech and expressed no concerns. She said that his errors in speech are all age appropriate. I was happy that he was quite talkative this morning. In past visits, he’s been shy so and haven’t always been able to observe him firsthand. {I’m confident that our early intervention speech therapy was very helpful in this}.
Brady’s ear tubes are still in place, but the nurse practitioner said they looked like they had moved a little bit, which is an indication that they are making their way out. They don’t like tubes to stay in much longer than 2 years, but since he hasn’t had any complications from them, we are hoping they will fall out in the next few months before we need to take any action to remove them surgically.
He passed his screenings with flying colors.
I met with the genetic counselor and talked a little about genetic testing. Blood work would be able to determine if there may have been genetic causes to his cleft palate. Kev and I will discuss this further, but aren’t feeling strongly that it is needed at this point.
Overall, it was a good morning and I left feeling so thankful and encouraged. I’m thankful for skilled and caring doctors, for my little guy’s determination {there are times when I haven’t been thankful for it, but today I was}, and for God’s care of my son. I know God’s hand has been involved in every single aspect of this journey.
