Cleft clinic appointment

I snapped this shot while we were waiting to go in for her hearing test ... she doesn't look all that jazzed. I can't really blame her though, with all of our recent experience with doctor's and lab visits. Unfortunately this is the *only* picture I took today :-( But hey, at least I have one!

So we started off our long afternoon with her hearing test, which she did ok with. She responded to voices very well, but sounds & beeps were another issue. She is definitely showing some signs of hearing loss, especially on her left side (which makes sense because that's the side that is cleft-affected). They assume it has to do with fluid build-up, which is very common with cleft kiddos.

When we went to see the ENT after that, she was able to see fluid on the left side, but couldn't really see much on the right. With a combination of very narrow ear canals and lots of wax, it was difficult to tell exactly what was going on. And let me tell ya ... Sunshine just *loved* that exam, especially with me & DH super-humanly papoose-boarding her the whole time. LOL. My poor child. The doc talked about cleaning out her ears right then so Sunshine could hear better and so she could see into her ears better ... but after explaining to her that it would be a bad idea and would really, really not go over well with Sunshine ... she gave the alternative of doing it while she was knocked out during her surgery. Phew, disaster averted. A very sleepy no-nap kind of Sunshine would not have handled that well on top of her strong-willed nature. Plus, who wants to have THAT done?! The plan will also be to place tubes in her ears at the time of surgery.

After that, we headed upstairs to see the surgeon and his amazing nurse! I have been in contact with her for months and she has been absolutely wonderful, so I was really excited to finally meet her! The surgeon mapped out the plan for us ... the first surgery on 8/18 will be a "lip adhesion" where he will repair the top part of her lip only. This will help to pull things together and help them line up for the full lip surgery in November(ish). He also said that because she is older, as long as she can eat well after the surgery, we will mostly likely not even need to stay in the hospital overnight! Yay!

After the 2nd lip surgery, Sunshine will have her final surgery a few months later for her palate. The surgeon explained that the palate will be repaired but her gumline will stay they way it is. If he were to fix it then, it would permanently set her gumline in place, which would not be a good thing because she's so young. BUT, the cool thing is that the gumline will naturally pull itself together (because of the lip & palate repairs) and we will only see the tiniest gap within about a month (I think). How fascinating!

After that, he said she'll see an orthodontist at about age 6-7 and we would start working on an expander for her palate to help get everything lined up correctly. And then at about age 9-10, we'll do braces. Sounds easy enough, right? LOL. Unfortunately we forgot to ask about the shape of her nose and whether she will need additional surgeries for that, but we'll have plenty of time to sort all of that out! We also saw a dental team but honestly, I'm not quite sure why because they didn't give us any new information that the surgeon hadn't already discussed. We're also going to save meeting with the speech pathologist until Sunshine's palate repair.

It's funny because the actual meeting with doctors wasn't all that long - it was being shuffled around and waiting in multiple waiting rooms that took so long! So glad that's over! Sunshine was passed out in the car 7 minutes into the ride home. Exhausted baby girl. LOL. Don't blame her much, we were pooped too!

So our next stop is the first surgery on 8/18! We arrive at the hospital at 9:15am. Wow, that's only 24 days from now! I'm excited but also nervous for Sunshine ... I am so attached to the way she looks right now, it's a little scary to know that we are changing her face forever. Although obviously I know this needs to be done, I just love her little (or not so little) smile just the way it is!