Yesterday we had Kaylee's cleft clinic. That's an appointment where we see all of her team of doctors who help with her cleft. We saw Dr. Allen, her surgeon. Dr. Meredith, her dentist. A bunch of other people including her audiologist, speech pathologist, and a psychologist (because they just always send one for support or something). She saw a lot of people. Overall we were there for about 8 hours. We left home at 9 am and didn't get back until 8 pm. Ugh, and it was hot so Kaylee was not happy on the ride home :(
Anyways, how are things going for her? Dr. Allen says she is looking great as far as her lip repair and palate repair goes. He sees no reason to do any extra repairs to her lip or her palate. He might think about starting to do some nose repair for symmetry, but wants to look over her case a bit more first.
Dr. Meredith says that Kaylee's teeth are in great shape. No bleeding gums, no major problems. She still has four molars that need to come in, and she is missing an incisor. It will never grow in, because it isn't there. So, it's not a problem, she'll probably have a fake one implanted later, when she is around 17 or 18, after her braces come off, and the bone grafting. But overall, good healthy teeth.
As far as her ears go: she might be hearing impaired in her right ear. She passed the hearing test in her left ear with flying colors. But her right ear didn't pass, at all. So, they took a look at her ear, sucked a lot of fluid out of it (which she did not enjoy and screamed for a long time because of it), and tried the test again - no go. So, we are being given some drops to clear her ears of any fluids/wax etc for a month and then she will get retested. We will find out at that point if she can hear out of that ear.
As far as her speech is concerned, everything seems normal on that front. The pathologist said he wants us to work on consonant sounds, but for everything else she is doing just fine. She has a great vocabulary, and since I can decipher a lot of what she is saying, there isn't much we need to do except watch our language (oops!)
So, that was the cleft clinic. A long hard day of doctors and specialists, just to tell me what I already know: Kaylee is perfect. :) Talk to you guys later!
Anyways, how are things going for her? Dr. Allen says she is looking great as far as her lip repair and palate repair goes. He sees no reason to do any extra repairs to her lip or her palate. He might think about starting to do some nose repair for symmetry, but wants to look over her case a bit more first.
Dr. Meredith says that Kaylee's teeth are in great shape. No bleeding gums, no major problems. She still has four molars that need to come in, and she is missing an incisor. It will never grow in, because it isn't there. So, it's not a problem, she'll probably have a fake one implanted later, when she is around 17 or 18, after her braces come off, and the bone grafting. But overall, good healthy teeth.
As far as her ears go: she might be hearing impaired in her right ear. She passed the hearing test in her left ear with flying colors. But her right ear didn't pass, at all. So, they took a look at her ear, sucked a lot of fluid out of it (which she did not enjoy and screamed for a long time because of it), and tried the test again - no go. So, we are being given some drops to clear her ears of any fluids/wax etc for a month and then she will get retested. We will find out at that point if she can hear out of that ear.
As far as her speech is concerned, everything seems normal on that front. The pathologist said he wants us to work on consonant sounds, but for everything else she is doing just fine. She has a great vocabulary, and since I can decipher a lot of what she is saying, there isn't much we need to do except watch our language (oops!)
So, that was the cleft clinic. A long hard day of doctors and specialists, just to tell me what I already know: Kaylee is perfect. :) Talk to you guys later!