Cleft Palate Fissures & Vandy Visit

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Well, I'm excited and nervous and totally fried. VeeGee and I have been at Vandy for the past two days. We have seen six doctors (craniofacial surgeon, allergist, GI, pulmonologist, and the GI surgeon), had allergy bloodwork (bless her heart), X-Rays, and, ahem, an enema. I have NEVER seen ANYONE suffer like my baby girl suffered after the enema (saline). She screamed for forty five minutes straight, forehead flat against the wall, tiny fingers clenched, teeth clenched, And then she crawled into my lap and pooped 9 days worth of poop all over herself, and me. Pretty crazy. And THEN, we had to go have four vials of blood drawn. Naked. Well , her, not me.

So, the craniofacial surgeon, god bless him, scheduled cleft palate repair for the 30th OF THIS MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "Our Other Doc," Dr. W*#@*&^, was going to wait until she was AT LEAST four. Meanwhile, she continues to be unable to eat, to speak (and be understood by anyone but me), to have repeated sinus infections ear infections, blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, Other Doc fired, Vandy dude rocks.

There are concerns, though, about the repair. It will be the second attempt. The first attempt was when she was 6 months or so (before she came to live with us) and there were serious fissures (like so serious that every doctor who has looked at it as recoiled in shock, that is, every doc except Dr. W*#@*&^, who, apparently has NEVER ACTUALLY LOOKED). So the primary concern is that there might not be enough tissue to make the repair without further fissure(s). The other options, as I understand them, are to pull tissue from the cheek and/or a pharyngeal flap. This doc does not think a tongue flap is a choice for VeeGee b/c she's too young to tolerate it. Same reason not to do an obturator.