Sunday, August 12, 2007
Nelly Update
On Tuesday of this past week we took Michelle to the Shriner Children's Hospital in Portland, Oregon for an initial check-up. We talked to a plastic surgeon, an ENT, and a speech therapist all in the same place and we have a "care coordinator." All in all this seems like a much more sane approach to the process. We are still waiting to hear what the final plan is, since the doctors didn't get to review the report from the speech evaluation we had last month. The tentative plan is to have another surgery in a year and to evaluate Michelle again in 6 months. Waiting improves the chances of having a successful surgery (that won't come undone). The other balancing factor, of course, is Michelle's speech development and any bad habits she might be developing as she tries to compensate for her cleft. Thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray for wisdom for the doctors so that the surgery will happen at the right time and will be completely successful.
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3 comments:
Glad to hear there is a plan in place for the next couple of years.
I'm curious since you saw an ENT, have they ever mentioned doing a hearing test on her because of her cleft?? Rachel has a hearing test in two weeks, she failed her one two months ago, and if this test shows she still has fluid in her ears, they'll put tubes in her ears. All this to help with her speech.
Hi, Darcy.
Michelle actually had tubes put in at the time of the first surgery. The ENT at Shriners did check that (in fact that was the main reason we wanted to see him) and he could see one of the tubes and the other one seemed to be doing its good office, although he couldn't see it.
If Rachel does have to have tubes the good news is that it was an easy surgery (took about 5 min, I think) and the doctors fee wasn't too bad. No idea what kind of enormous bill would come from the health care facility for just that surgery because Michelle's tubes were put in at the same time as her first cleft repair.
Sorry to hear Rachel's having a hard time of it. We'll pray for her.
Good to know her tubes are working!
Rachel had her first set of tubes when they did her palate repair (Nov 2005). They put them in prophylactically for draining of all the fluid from the surgery, etc.
The hearing test they did on her in June showed she has fluid in her ears, but hasn't had any ear infections (PTL!!). So they are thinking that putting tubes in her ears again, would allow some of that fluid to drain and maybe she could hear things more clearer, and then as a result she would talk a little bit clearer. Maybe the tubes would help her listen better too?!?!? LOL. A mother could hope. :)
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