Corrective Surgery & Daddy's Voice

Corrective Surgery - Today we met briefly with the head of the craniofacial team at Children’s Hospital. I had visualized having every minute question answered, and Kate thoroughly examined, but the surgeon sort of breezed in, talked to us briefly, and breezed back out. He didn’t really even look at Kate’s mouth, at least not closely. (Let me interject here that this doctor has an outstanding reputation, and is nationally recognized. He was also recognized by his peers as being one of the best plastic surgeons in San Diego) He noticed her head shape before we said anything, but felt that it was “relatively minimal”, at least in her facial appearance. Since she is not an infant, the bones are not as pliable and are largely already fused together, so wearing a type of corrective helmet would probably not help. That leaves us with surgery…He very calmly goes into how it is done, and my eyes must have been as big as saucers, while my mouth hung open. “You can think about it, after her palate surgery” Ya, uh, we’ll get back to you on that.

Her lip and palate surgery is scheduled for May 8th, in 6 1/2 weeks. At that time, they will fix her lip, correct the nose opening (to the mouth), and close the palate. (They can do it all at once since she is older, whereas in infants they do each stage about 6 mo. apart.) It will probably be a 2 night stay in the hospital, and the surgery will take 2-3 hours. The cleft in her gumline will not be completely repaired until she is older. The nurse was clear to mention that it may not be exactly perfect after the first surgery, and will need small revisions as she grows, but “he is very good”. Oddly enough, the nurse, Julie, actually grew up largely in China and surprised Kate by speaking to her in Mandarin. Kate had been smiling and acting charming and coy, and when Julie said something to her, the smile instantly disappeared from Kate’s face and she stared at Julie, looking very interested.

A visit to the E.N.T. (ear, nose and throat doctor, a few days back) let us know, not surprisingly, that she will probably need ear tubes put in. They will do the 20 minute procedure, also on May 8th, when Miss Kate is already sedated, prior to the lip/palate surgery. I foresee May 8, 9, and 10 as being long days.



Daddy’s Voice – When we were at church, Kate was sitting on my lap, looking straight ahead, then the Praise Band starts up, off to the right. There are two male singers, one of which is Daddy. She had not looked over, or even noticed Kevin over there, until he starts singing, and then she whips her head in that direction and signs ‘daddy’ to me with the thumb part of her little fist touching her forehead. (The sign is actually a flat open hand, with the thumb touching the forehead, but this is her version of it.) Then, in case I’m not understanding, she starts pointing at her forehead. She did not take her eyes off of him for the rest of the song.

Prior to that, we had been in the nursing mother area and the music played through the speaker system…on comes Daddy’s voice and Kate is craning her head back to stare at the speaker on the ceiling, as if wondering how Daddy got in there. A friend with me says, “Look at her…she knows Kevin’s voice…she’s trying to figure it out! She’s pointing at her forehead.” Oh, you smart little thing. That’s right, that’s Daddy singing! Good girl.