Preston, Day after Lip/nose/palate revision 4 years old

POSTED 2/25/09

Preston had his 5th cleft related surgery (3rd major) on Feb 24,09. It was a LONG day, The surgery was pushed back several hours late. (very common because they like to do the babies early in the day and there are lots of reasons for delays in the schedule.)

His surgery lasted only about 2 hours and went well. We learned from the ENT that his ear drum had ruptured and healed over leaving some junk behind the ear drum that needed to be cleaned out and its a possiblilty that having had his ear drum rupture could have caused some perminate damage to the hearing bones so we will have to wait a few weeks to re test his hearing to see if it corrects itself.  

Preston had his soft palate repaired, ear tubes and the nose and lip at the bast of the nose revised. We stayed over night at the hospital and he is not happy about not getting to eat regular foods for 3 weeks so he will have to learn to like a soft diet. Preston will have the stitched under his nose removed in 1 week.

We are home now on Wednesday night and Preston is already asleep in mommy's bed. He was excited to see his brothers and pets! We have chosen to share our son's story with those who would like to see it so that we might be able to offer comfort and knowlege about cleft issues to others.

Thanks for all your love and support- April and Tom See Preston's photos below!

Preston, Just before lip/nose/palate repair  2/24/09- 4 yrs old

Preston in recovery right after surgery when he woke up. 2/24/09

What a CUTIE!

Preston in room evening of surgery 2/24/09

close up of lip/nose repair 2/24/09

Morning after surgery taking a wagon ride! 2/25/09

Enjoying the trains at Childrens Medical Center in Dallas, TX 2/25/09

Preston the day after surgery getting ready to go home. 2/25/09

Preston with Chloe at home at last! 2//25/09

Posted 2/19/09

Preston turned 4 in November of 08. After having a Palate Study about 9 months ago, we found out Preston has a small hole in his soft palate.-

A Palate study is a series of x-rays performed on the child after radio active drops are given in the nose while the child vocalizes a series of sounds while the xrays are filmed. This allows the speech pathologist to see any holes that may be present in the palate.

Preston is scheduled to have his hole in the soft palate repared on February 24, 09. Along with the soft palate repair, Preston will have his nose and lip revised or corrected. As his face has grown, his origonal surgical procedures need a little tweaking or adjusting and since he has to have surgery for his palate it's a good opportunity to do the lip and nose adjustments at the same time.

The week before his scheduled surgery, Preston's 3rd set of ear tubes came out so he will also need a new set of ear tubes. Preston was given "T" tubes for his 3rd set that were supposed to last 2+ years but since Preston has a hole in his soft palate, it causes bacteria and food to leak into his ear/nose and eye cavities causing more frequent and severe ear/ sinus infections than most children would normally get with tubes in place.  This increases the chance of loosing the tubes. (As I was told by the ENT)

Preston went to the audiologist on 2/18/09 and hearing tests revealed that once again, Preston is suffering mild hearing loss in the ear that has lost the tube due to fluid being trapped behind the ear drum. Once the tubes are replaced and the fluid cleaned out on the 24th then his hearing should return to normal. This has happened to Preston before and his hearing has always returned to normal after the tubes have been returned.

Preston also had a pre-op appointment on the 18th and we got to visit with the "child life specialist".

 The CLS is a social worker who helps families and children prepare for their surgery or procedures by talking with the children about general information about the hospital, what to expect when they get there before the procedure and what types of things they have done, like an IV or when they wear a hospital gown ad the Dr's wear masks... that type of thing. The CLS can help to ease the child's fears about going to the hospital.

Preston got to pick out a scented oxygen mask that he will be able to bring to the surgery and use when they give him the medicine to help him sleep for his surgery. He chose the strawberry scent!

Preston did not seem to have any questions but we don't think he really understood that we were talking about a surgery so we will see how he responds on surgery day.