Cleft-o-palooza

Today was our turn to go to our annual craniofacial clinic appointment. This was Annie's first time (and actually Dayna's second in 6 months.) It indeed turned out to be the long day we expected, but both girls really did very well.

It looks like we may be able to get Dayna's bone graft done this year after all. We'll be setting up orthodontics soon to expand her palate. After that, she'll be a candidate for a procedure called BMP (bone morphogenetic protein) - an implant that doesn't come from the hip. This will increase her initial swelling, but decrease her recovery time. We'd be looking at Christmas vacation, and she would be going back to school on a limited diet. But it would free up her summer next year for more exciting things. Otherwise, she's doing remarkably well with speech, hearing, etc.

Annie's visits were a bit more extensive as we're working on a baseline for her. It looks like she's got some significant tooth decay from before we met her. We knew her hearing was limited from fluid (and we'll handle that with tubes when her palate is repaired.) We had an incredibly fascinating conversation with the geneticist who has given us some things to think about concerning Annie's smaller stature. At this point, we have nothing to worry about; just something to tuck in the back of our minds as she continues to grow. She does have another sinus infection (started running a fever yesterday and has been pretty lethargic for the last two days). We're hoping to get her surgery scheduled soon, probably early July after Dan's brother and his family come for a visit. We'll put off the remaining bloodwork that needs to be done until her operation, so they can draw that while she's sleeping.

All in all, there were no huge surprises today, and although it was a long day, they girls did very, very well. We celebrated our long morning with lunch at Jason's Deli, and the girls enjoyed a dish of ice cream.