Eiche fam

As if last week was not bad enough with all its clinic visits, we have one more this week, midst all of Namine’s resumed therapy sessions. But while last week’s clinics were mere one- to two-hour deals, tomorrow’s is promised to be at least four hours long. A four-hour clinic visit is nothing new to us, having been through the worst of cramming ENT, pulmonary, cardiology, and GI into a single visit (due to Namine being trached and vented, tethered to a single five-hour oxygen tank). But neither would we care to repeat it; tomorrow, though, is a very important day.

The clinic will consist of being seen by craniofacial (specifically, the palate team – Namine’s plastic surgeon, Dr. Denny, and his colleagues), ENT, and one or more dentists. Honestly, we have no clue what specifically to expect. We do know they want to talk about Namine’s palate – even though it’s healed and solid, she still has difficulty producing consonants (although not as much difficulty as last time she was seen by Dr. Denny). Further palate surgery is a possibility.

With Namine being examined for more potential surgery, we can only hope that she is seen as a person, not just another procedure. We have quit seeing her ortho doctor forever because all he cared about was doing another surgery, not her overall comfort or progress. We have hope, though; Dr. Denny did such a well job on Namine’s palate and jaw, and we know that he does care about her as a person.

But enough of that. I’ll have more to say after the (frightfully long) clinic appointment. Now, I’d like to write about our weekend.

Saturday evening, we made pizza. I should say that we let Namine do most of the making. She controlled how much of the ingredients got onto the pizza. So much delicious cheese. We also put black olives and some Italian sausage on it too. (Namine just wanted to eat the black olives herself, but I made her put some on the pizza.)

Jessica found some shoes for Namine. Not just any shoes, though; these are flexible enough and comfortable enough for her to wear without her braces. And she likes to wear them, which is even less likely.