First Cleft Team Appt.

Long story short, it was a good day with a surprise diagnosis. We met with a cleft pediatrician, nutritionist, social worker, cleft surgeon, orthodontist, and 2 nurses--one did measurements at the beginning, and one who wraps up the appointment at the end. A photographer also took pictures of Ty so we can document his progress. All seemed happy with Tyson's health and glad that he's progressing and gaining weight. He has almost gained 5 pounds in the month we've had him! We realize he will lose a few pounds after surgery, so we are just going to continue our current meal routine with a few minor tweaks just to make things even better.

It's important to know that all of Tyson's paperwork report a unilateral cleft lip and palate, . That means that the cleft was only on one side, in Ty's case the left side. Last night I was looking at Tyson's referral photos. I noticed that his "scar" was on his right. So how does that work when the cleft was on the left? I never put much thought into it. I had noticed it before, but never compared it to the photos. But what do I know about surgeries?

So today the surgeon looked at him and at first was confused too. Then he realized that Tyson actually has a bilateral cleft lip, unilateral cleft gumline and palate. The "scar" on the right is actually a microform cleft lip. Joaquin Phoenix has this. The doctor told us all about it, and it is not a big deal at all, just a surprise. Down the road, we can have surgery on this to make the microform side less visible. But for now, we just put that info aside, as we first need to focus on the palate. The one thing I need to do still is to go examine the few baby pictures of Ty that I have to see if this is in fact the case. I was kicking myself for not taking those with us to the appointment, but I did have the referral medical paperwork, and the surgeon appreciated that.

We hope to have a surgery date this week. We will visit ENT (ear, nose, throat doctor), and have his speech and hearing assessed on October 5th. Tyson did pretty well. He walked around the hospital like he owned the place. He did well in the room (all the doctors came to us!), and even figured out how to open and close the door. The ride home didn't go so great. He was tired and uncomfortable, and who could blame him. We had our first meal out since China, and I didn't like it. I am still very tired of eating out!

So that's it! We also had Tyson's baby dedication yesterday. Pictures to come soon!