Medical Update

Both boys are ready to go on to their next surgery!

Hurray!!!  (insert jump and click heels together here)

Samuel will have a full lip repair ~ meaning that his lip muscles will be attached in the correct place and doc will make his lip look symmetrical with minimal scarring. Unfortunately, it seems that the fistula in his hard palate is a big one as far as holes-in-the-palate go, and there isn't much on the tooth side to attach the palate to. We might just let him grow, and look at getting him an obturator. An obturator is a prosthetic device that closes off the hole in the hard palate, and is helpful for speech. We are so excited that he will have his lip repaired.

David is ready to go with his hard palate repair. Yay! If you remember, he was the one we weren't sure about ~ the parts of his palate that he does have needed to grow more before he could have surgery. I guess what the doc did inside his mouth during the last surgery has helped to pull tissues so they would expand and grow. Doc thinks he could get David's hard palate closed in one surgery... maybe, maybe... You never know what will happen, but that would be such a blessing!

Our curveball is that the hospital our doc uses (and where we were for the last surgery) is closing their pediatric unit. Our doc found out very recently that this was happening, so he is working on getting privileges at the children's hospital up the road. We should know in a week or two if privileges will be expedited, and if we can have surgery sooner than later. If privileges are not expedited, then we can expect about a three month wait until our doc has privileges at the children's hospital. The good news is that our good friends' daughter has had surgeries at this children's hospital and they have been so happy with the hospital overall. So we will have that to look forward to :o)

We are praying that these surgeries can be scheduled very soon. While there is no harm in waiting for surgery and no medical urgency, sooner would be a blessing for a couple reasons. The most important is that, at 4 years old, David is really old to have a palate repair. He is losing precious time to learn to speak clearly. And Samuel's lips can't close properly to help him speak clearly. So time is ticking away ~ the longer they go without the ability to speak clearly, the harder it is to undo the bad habits and relearn how to talk intelligibly. It is also important socially for the boys to look more like their friends and to talk more like their friends.

Our doc said he should know within two weeks after our appointment whether privileges will be expedited or not...

Two weeks is today on my calendar.

I'll be calling the doc this morning :o)

(((hugs))),
chris


We can make our own plans, but the Lord gives the right answer.  Proverbs 16:1