Clinic

Today we went to the Cleft Lip and Palate Clinic. I packed a lot of snacks as food always helps to ease her anxiety.

Our first stop was audiology where it was confirmed that Anna does have a slight hearing loss.

Next was speech therapy where it was recommended I take Anna for an evaluation through our county's early intervention program. This is the same place I've taken all my foster children. She should qualify for in-home speech therapy until she becomes school-age.

After that it was lunch. They provided a nice lunch for us and I got to talk with some of the other families there for the day. Dan joined us for the afternoon after lunch.

Here she is all smiles. Remember, no one has actually poked or prodded her yet!

Next it was two plastic surgeons and an ENT. The surgeons agreed that the Chinese surgeons had done a great job on her soft palate and it was flexible which is really good for speech. Yea! They disagreed on when to fix the hole in her hard palate and revise her lip surgery. One thinks it should be done soon and the other thought we should wait until right before she starts school. It will be interesting to see what the final recommendation is that is sent to us. It doesn't really matter since we are going with a totally different surgeon anyway.

The ENT advised tubes in her ears for the hearing loss and these will be put it in either during the next surgery, or sooner if surgery is postponed.

The pediatric dentist gave us lots of tips on how to keep her teeth clean and what to do about the tooth in the roof of her mouth. Yes, you heard right. He says leave it alone! Apparently we don't want to interfere with any bone growth since these kids have so little already.

The oral surgeons and orthodontists (6 of them!), say she will most definitely need a bone graft around 8-10 years old where the clefts went through the gums in order to hold the permanent teeth in place. She will start orthodontia around six years old.

Overall it was great day! Learning that her palate was done well was a huge relief when it comes to speech. We will have to wait and see if it holds up and what the surgeon we are actually going to use has to say.