I was a bit anxious for this appointment. Cash's cleft was more extensive than we originally thought it would be, and I was totally unsure of "how" they would repair things now. Dr. Griffiths would give us the game plan for the next year, and also the date of Cash' first surgery.
{Sidebar: The day before we went, Cash had developed a little white scab looking thing on the side of his gums. His lips and gums get really dried out, and sometimes he has loose boogers that he "breathes" out that I can get to come off by softening them with petroleum jelly. That didn't work and I seemed to be bugging Cash when I tried to get it off, so I just left it alone. Stewart thought maybe it was a little callus from his bottle rubbing on it. On Friday morning it seemed to have grown. When we saw Dr. Griffiths that was the first thing I asked about. He took a look and told us it was a little tooth bud that was pushing its way out. He said it would probably fall out, or he could just pull it out right there. Since it was bugging Cash to eat (and started bleeding when I tried to feed him) we opted for him to pull it. It took him two seconds to pull it out with a pair of tweezers. Kind of strange, but Cash lost his first tooth at only a week and a half old! (And why I didn't pull out my phone and take pictures before, during and after is still beyond me... Next time anything unusual happens I'll be sure to be on top of it!) End of Sidebar}
Dr. Griffiths came in and immediately took pictures of Cash (for the before and afters), then looked at him. He told us he seemed to be a healthy boy, was glad he was eating good, gave us a few pointers on feeding (hold him upright by the back of the neck so you have full control {insert Dr. manhandling my tiny baby in every direction to show he has full control}, throw the bottle on the floor if he starts choking (don't look around like a doe eyed deer for a place to set the bottle while your baby is choking!!) and face palm him into your other hand so he can breath (I might have added a motherly touch to it... but that's just me), burp him often... etc. (Stewart and I both found this teaching segment a little comical... not sure if it's just the way he said it or if it's just him, but we both laughed about it in the car).
As far as surgery- since Cash is eating and growing so well we can do surgery on his lip in February. (whoot whoot!) Dr. Griffiths explained to us how this all works (since I was lost). If you were to cut your lip and gums from the base of your nose to the bottom of your lip and let it heal naturally, all the pieces would "suck up" and it would look just like a cleft lip. Cash has all the tissue he needs to have a smooth lip, it's just all bunched up together. The surgeon has super magnified glasses that allow him to see each layer of the bunched up lip. He then cuts the layers apart, stretches them, then sews it together. (It's actually pretty simple). While Cash is in surgery, they will make a mold of his mouth. They'll build a sort of retainer for him to pop into the top of his palate, and also one that will go under his new lip (he'll wear them for 3-4 weeks). The pressure of the lip on his gums will force them to come together and ultimately heal themselves. The retainer that goes under his lip will act as a "track" for his gums to come together nice and rounded instead of at a sharp angle. It should only take one surgery to fix his lip (unless his nostril comes out looking funny- then he might have to do another one just to perfect it).
We will wait until Cash is a year old to do any work on his palate. (I forgot to ask why exactly we wait till then, but I'm pretty sure it's so the palate will grow and stretch as much as it can before they do more surgery).
We will call and schedule surgery as soon as his staff come back from their Christmas break. Until then we have to get Cash weighed once a week. If he starts losing weight, we'll have to take him in to get checked out (and possibly move the surgery). So far though- he's happy to eat and grow! Right now we are trying to find a way around driving to Twin once a week just to get him weighed at the Pediatrician's office. Hopefully we can work with an office here in Gooding just to use their scale and send over his weight. {Fingers Crossed}.
Since we live in Gooding when it comes time to do surgery, Dr. Griffiths wants us to come to Boise on a Wednesday, stay the night, do surgery early Thursday, then stay Friday night and Saturday morning/afternoon just to make sure everything is healing okay and that Cash eats well. I'm not going to lie- this scares me a lot. I feel like we're in a hurdle race and we've just gotten over the first hurdle- getting Cash here, getting him to eat good, and getting into somewhat of a routine. Now I can see the next hurdle ahead, but can't quite see exactly how to get over it. The race is on!
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