So, I was driving today and thinking about how much I should update our blog. After I lost said blog and then had to find it, I realized just what a horrible person I am. I have not written a post since January?!?!? How can that possibly be??? Things have been happening. It's not like life suddenly got boring. I guess, rather, the time just got away from me. If you still care, and take the time to read this - I'm sorry. As things are about to get interesting in our lives, I can assure you, my next post will be within one month - not eight.
I could write the world's longest update with what has happened in the past eight months, but I won't. Instead, I'll hit the major points and promise to write more soon. Yes, I realize I've promised this before...
In my last post, I mentioned that Gabriel would be attending a Children's Craniofacial Clinic in March. As it turned out, we got dumped on by more snow that day and Gabriel threw up all over Chad's backseat while waiting in the drive-through at McDonald's. So even if it wasn't for the snow, the puke definitely had us turning around and going home. Our Clinic appointment was then rescheduled for May.
In May, with no snow and no vomit, we made it to the Clinic. This is how things went down:
Speech is not very good (shocker...). We were told we could increase therapy to 2 sessions a week, should he tolerate it, and keep pushing sign language as much as possible. After discussing this with his speech therapist, we decided to not increase his sessions at this time. Gabriel will be in speech therapy for many, many years to come, so we really do not want to burn him out and make him hate it already.
Dr. S indicated that Gabriel's soft palate is still too short. He said he would like to do surgery in six months to a year to both lengthen the soft palate and try (again) to repair the hole in the front of the palate. Sounds simple, right? It's not. Unfortunately, after 3 semi-successful repairs, Gabriel has run out of usable tissue to lengthen the palate with, which leaves Dr. S with no choice but to perform a procedure he deems his last resort. This procedure will take tissue from the back of Gabriel's throat in the form of a flap that will be attached up to the soft palate, effectively closing off the nasal cavity from the back of the throat. Then, two holes would be made in this flap that will allow for drainage. This procedure is a last resort because it comes with the 'major complication' of oftentimes causing 'severe sleep apnea' since those two drainage holes will frequently become plugged. Especially if Gabriel continues to suffer from chronic sinus infections and drainage issues.
Chad and I have discussed this at length and, honestly, we are still not sure what to do. On one hand, if the soft palate is not lengthened, there is a distinct possibility he may never be able to speak clearly or without sounding very nasal (think Fran Drescher - who, by the way, because rich and famous off her voice). Plus, we can't be sure all the food that still comes out of his nose is solely from the hole, and not coming up from behind the palate, so he could always be potentially grossing people out at the dinner table. However, on the other hand, my child could have sleep apnea - which means always worrying about whether or not he will die in his sleep. We have talked about possibly just waiting until Gabriel is older and can decide for himself if it is worth the risk. I don't want my baby to not be able to use his beautiful voice, but I also don't want to have him have to take his Cpap machine with him to sleepovers or have to remember to pack it when moving away to college. This is the first time we have had to make a decision in this process since the rest were no brainers and, quite frankly, it sucks.
So, what do we do? Well, we have another Clinic to go to on September 10th where we will talk at length with his doctors about when they think the surgery should happen and when it has to happen. Hence my update coming in a month!
In other news, we knew Gabriel's teeth were going to be a mess, but we had no idea we'd suffer from that so soon. I took Gabriel to see his dentist about a tooth that was broken after one of his surgeries. That appointment led to a tooth extraction and three crowns - 3 CROWNS!!!!! Do you know how much the tooth fairy has to pay for silver teeth?!?!?! Needless to say, my FSA has taken a big hit this year.
Additionally, Gabriel is about to age out of First Steps. Starting in December when he turns three, he will be attending public preschool for special education children five days a week. He will be at the same school as Ethan, so Ethan's pretty excited! I, on the other hand, am not excited. It's one more piece of proof my baby is growing up.
With all that I'm going to call this update done. I have to leave my boys with Chad for a few days while I do some traveling for work, so I probably ought to get some snuggles in before I go. I will be in touch with all of you again in September with news of the next surgery. Until then...
