Today Taylee attended her very first craniofacial clinic. This is a long afternoon in which she sees her plastic surgeon, the ENT, the orthodontist, and speech therapy. And a quick check-up with the craniofacial nurse and social work. Looking back we are lucky to have made it through in just over 2 hours! Fortunately we have nothing exciting to report. Yay! Dr. Siddiqi (plastics) and Dr. Smith (ENT) both said that everything looks good and they want to see us at clinic in a year. WooHoo! The orthodontist examined her mouth and fortunately reported no wear and tear (yet!) from her new teeth grinding habit. He said this is relatively common when toddlers first get their teeth, and usually goes away. Here's hoping! He did note that she has a large frenulum (sp?), the tissuey doo-hickey that connects the top gum to the upper lip. He said that next time she is in the Operating Room (which I hope will be never!), he wants the surgeon to cut it. I believe that this is similar to when babies are tongue-tied. It hasn't been a problem thus far, but could mess up her teeth, and of course, speech. If she doesn't end up back in the OR, I believe they can do this procedure in the office under sedation. We'll check again at clinic next year if it's not already repaired.
So, speech therapy was, for me, the most interesting part. Obviously I have been concerned about her speech, so I was all ears. They felt like she is doing very well, especially with her new expanded babbling vocabulary. Although, they think we should continue with her therapy through early intervention, and if she hasn't progressed in 6 months we will need to see the therapist here at Primary's. The Speech therapist did help me to understand some of her speech patterns. Apparently the M, N, and ing sound are all nasal sounds. This means that for a child with a cleft palate, they are the easiest sounds to make. They don't need to involve their palate to make these sounds. No wonder she said mama first! However, ALL other sounds require the mouth. So, these will all be harder for her. We are supposed to repeat ba, da, pa, ga sounds to help her learn. And, apparently just because she has been repaired, she's not necessarily repaired fully as far as speech. The repaired palate just isn't as good as a real (properly formed) palate. It can be floppy, or stretchy, or a whole bunch of other things that can foul up speech. If she has problems with these things, they can be fixed with a prosthesis, a sling (a what? yeah, I don't really know either), or with another repair. Here's crossing our fingers that she just does well on her own, and starts talking!
Once we made it inside, I was doing
