cleft palate

  • Excitement and improvement

    Excitement and improvement

    Jessica decided that we should name Namine’s palatal prosthetic. She and Namine settled on “Pat.” I don’t know. My girls are weird sometimes. It’s up to me to establish normalcy in this family. My cross to bear, I guess.

  • A new record

    I worked from home today, which allowed me to get up with Namine and let Jessica sleep in. When I gave Namine her breakfast around 9:30, she asked me to first put her palatal prosthetic in. Wait, what? Yes, that’s right. She was so enthusiastic about it that she wanted to eat breakfast while wearing…

  • Speaking with the prosthetic

    We gave Namine a couple days off from the prosthetic, if only to give her a chance to recuperate from whatever infection she might have.

  • Getting used to the palatal prosthetic

    Getting used to the palatal prosthetic

    They weren’t kidding when they said Namine would gag quite a bit from the palatal prosthetic. She threw up when Jessica put it in yesterday, although the jury is still out on whether she triggered her gag reflex or if she just worked herself up too much.

  • Procedures tomorrow

    We’re headed off to the hospital tomorrow, for more procedures. Namine is having two things done: dental work and a bronchoscopy.

  • Gribbles

    Gribbles

    Every once in a while, Namine will say something that we don’t understand. Some time ago, one such word was “appawooby.” We could not, for the longest time, figure out what it meant. We eventually figured it out: it meant “that would be.” She was saying an approximation of when we say it quickly, “tha’wou’be.”…

  • ENT clinic

    ENT clinic

    Yesterday we had a clinic visit with Namine’s ENT doctor, Dr. Sulman. The meeting’s purpose was to talk about the clipping Namine’s frenulum (the webbing under her tongue), since she’s tongue-tied. I think the meeting went rather well.

  • Monday’s ENT clinic

    Monday’s ENT clinic

    Next week Monday is the first meeting (of many, I fear) to discuss the clipping of Namine’s frenulum (that webbing underneath the tongue).

  • Rational thought not included

    Rational thought not included

    We knew that we would be getting a follow-up call after Namine’s cleft palate clinic appointments. It was expected, if only because we’d already done the same thing six months ago. What we didn’t expect was the utter stupidity accompanying the call.

  • A second opinion

    A second opinion

    A couple weeks ago, Namine had an appointment at the cleft palate clinic. But this was no mere checkup. Six months ago, several doctors, pathologists, and other specialists evaluated Namine for mandibular and tongue surgery. They declared that she should be re-evaluated six months later; this was that re-evaluation.

  • Cleft palate clinic

    Cleft palate clinic

    I can never remember if I’m supposed to refer to Dr. Denny’s team as the “cleft palate team” or just the “palate team.” I imagine it’s the latter, since the good doctor does all sorts or palate work. But since Namine had a cleft palate, that term just sort of stuck with us. At any…

  • A near miss

    A near miss

    Jessica took Namine to the ER this afternoon. She – Namine, I mean, not Jessica – was playing with a pencil in her mouth, despite being told not to. The next thing you know, Namine’s mouth is bleeding. And the cold grip of fear: did Namine puncture her palate?