Surgery is Scheduled

Tuesday's appointment was indeed a long one.  Four hours start to finish with doctors.  Six hours start to finish with driving, parking, and registration.  Thankfully, like before, Everlee stayed intact with all the poking and prodding. She was punch drunk having missed her nap, so her friendly wave of "hello" was a bit more frantic and wide-eyed.  Her jumps of excitement and charming smile won over the hearts of each doctor, ALL whom commented on her activity level. This time was certainly easier because we found daytime childcare for Penn, a tremendous feat in itself, so he didn't have to tag along. Those of you living remotely near family who can help don't know how great you have it!  The boys had loads of fun going back and forth to Rolly Pollies kids' gym, with a friend and employee who was covering her split shift and babysitting for me at the same time, and it put this mama at ease.    

A revolving door of specialists met with patients like us and discussed the cases later in the evening:
~ The geneticist said her clefts were isolated, meaning they were not linked to any other medical issue or physical condition, as far as they could tell.
~ Pediatric Dental felt her bite was alined properly, despite the missing gums, teeth, and bone structure.  They were overall happy with the shape of her arch.
~ Facial Reconstruction agreed with dental and felt that closing her category IV palate would be routine and heal well.  They also seemed impressed by the lip repair done in China.  We have been from day one, too.  No visible scars and the peaks are even, not distorted.
~ Speech Pathology said she will pick up language at light speed.  We are already seeing this in respect to receptive skills or understanding.  The excessive drooling, she thought, was caused more by the upper lip than the open palate. Brent thought the same.  She's lacking muscle control and will have to be taught by us to suck the spit in.  That will come with time, gained control, and age enough to follow along.
~ ENT figured she probably had fluid in her ears because that issue is common with cleft, so we did a audiogram on another floor before we left.  They were right.
~ We did not meet with Oral Surgery, but suspected, and had confirmed by Facial and ENT that she will need an additional bone graft down the road.  She has a long road ahead of her from a dental standpoint.  Without gums or bone structure, she will have multiple procedures and surgeries to create teeth in the places they are missing.  I think we know someone...

Yesterday, Wednesday, I received a call from the surgery office to schedule her date for initial cleft closing and tubes in the ears.  These people are prompt!  They did what they said, jointly discussing all cases Tuesday evening, and made a plan!  Surgery date is Thursday, October 24.  The procedure itself will last about three hours.  They did not give us a time, as that is determined only days out by patients' ages.  The younger patients and elderly go first, the healthy adults wait until later in the day.  Who can go longer without food is what it boils down to.

Recovery time is 2-3 weeks.  They say she'll be uncomfortable even drinking the first week.  Strict soft diet the following two weeks.  And the kicker:  No thumb sucking during recovery or the palate will tear apart.  She sucks her thumb all night long.  All night long, peeps.  I just checked on her and it's in her mouth right now... We're going to have to get creative with that one!

Here's the sassy girl waiting for Penn earlier in the day at gymnastics.  Her little sprout has prompted another nickname from Daddy: Cherry Bomb.

I'm in such a great place with pretty E this week!  God has been patient and gracious with me.  Thank you for all the personal support, well wishes, and questions asking how this appointment went.