Last week on Tuesday afternoon, I took Janessa to meet the surgeon who will fix her Cleft palate. Dr. Girotto is a plastic surgeon and does this surgery all the time. We really liked him. He obviously knows what he is doing and gave me all of the information that I had been wondering about without me even needing to ask...seems that most people have the same questions as me...go figure!
What we can expect is that the one night she will spend in the hospital will be awful. She will be uncomfortable, not want to eat and won't sleep well. Then we will get up in the morning and will be told that we can go home. Dr. Girotto told me that we will think they are CRAZY for sending us home. Then, by 12 or 1pm, all of a sudden Janessa will turn a corner and start acting normal and we will be ready to leave.
I know all of this sounds really strange, but it was so comforting to me to know that these are the emotions that I should expect. It now won't be a shock to me when I feel this way.
Also, he eased my fears about the arm braces that she will wear for 2 weeks (to prevent her from putting her hands in her mouth). He said, at this age babies basically wake up from surgery and think..."oh...God took my elbows away. Oh well." and they just go on with life. Also, she will need to be without her pacifier for 2 weeks which means that sleeping will definitely be an adjustment during that time. We are trying to get her attached to a little blankie that she can snuggle with....we'll see....she really likes the binkie!
On Friday, we met with the ENT, Dr. Benoit, who will be putting the tubes in her ears during her surgery. (Because her mouth isn't formed correctly, she is very prone to ear infections and fluid in the ears).We also got to see a Nurse Practitioner, Keri, that I used to babysit her kids! She eased my anxieties in telling me that Dr. Benoit did her own daughters tonsillectomy. Thankfully we have made it thus far with no ear infections....supposedly that is rare.
They decided to do a hearing test while we were there so they would have a baseline to compare to after her surgery....this is where the not so good news comes in.
She fell asleep before they started the test and stayed asleep through the whole things which actually makes the test more accurate.
And then she failed the first test SIX times!!! Three times in each ear. The audiologist was obviously not wanting me to worry so she passed it off as a "not to worry" thing, and said they have a more accurate test in a sound proof room...so we headed over there. She failed that too.
To give you an idea of what it was like this would be what the results would look like in a "normal" exam.
Although I can't find a good picture of what Janessa's looked like, the arc was somewhat like this...
Yep...not so great.
So, what does this mean? Well, basically it means that our baby girl has lots of fluid behind both of her ears. She can definitely hear us because she responds, however, it would sound to hear as if we are under water. So...the ENT called me on Friday afternoon (of course I had left my phone in the car) just to make sure that I wasn't worried all weekend. Then, she called first thing this morning to make sure that I understood and wasn't worried.
They contemplated doing to the tubes now to get the fluid out, but with the palate not being fixed, it could cause more issues (uh...the poor kid already has milk come out her nose...well...it would then also come out her ears!) so they are going to wait unless she starts having ear issues.
The Surgery will be in February...I should hear back today on a date! Like any mother, I am nervous about the anesthesia but I also know that without this surgery she would have a multitude of problems. In the grand scheme of things, this is an EXTREMELY minor problem for a child to have.
Sorry for the long post...this is as much for my own memory as it is to keep others up to date!
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