Shriner's visit

On Wednesday we took Kole to Shriner's Children's Hospital in Chicago for his Cleft team visit to see how everything is going with his growth. Our morning started at 2:30 am and leaving home by 3 am. We had a rainy windy drive until about Joliet then we noticed some sleet, then the further north we went, the more snow there was! Snow in April.. wow! Apparently the morning commuters from the suburbs saw the snow and left early so our great plans of leaving at 3 am and getting to Shriner's by 7 am was blown away in the wind. 5 hours and 20 minutes later we were finally there!

The following are some of the results of our visit.
The big thing is Kole cooperated, he was smily and chatty and friendly with the team.
He started his day with photographs. Then on to otolarangy (sp?) aka. hearing tests.
The mechanics of his ears are working great! His hearing is as close to perfect as it can get. It is as if he has never had an ear infection, no fluid in the canals either! This is very unusual for most cleft affected kids. The ENT only found a wad of wax to remove. Otherwise his ears are clear and good.
He then had X-rays. These showed something remarkable! A tooth that wasn't expected! Apparently a lot of cleft lip kids (Kole's was on the left) where the gum is involved the tooth where the gap is never develops and a tooth transplant would be done a lot later. They are going to be watching this tooth very closely to see what it does.
The Speech pathologist was just blown away with Kole's speech! We are to keep doign what we are doing. The psychologist was very impressed with Kole's adjustment to us and his life here. We did discuss some of the sibling rivalry we are having and the jealousy that Kole feels toward his sisters when they get attention and what we are doing and what can be done.
Kole was also weighed and measured.
The dentist told us all was looking good. The orthodontist was telling us all about the palate expander that will be put in when the 6 year molars are completely in. That could be in the next 12 - 18 months. Then the maxiofacial surgeon and resident checked out a few things with Kole's cleft palate and lip and determined the bone graft will wait until after the palate expander and then close the current small fissure/fistula (terminology ?) They advised that when he speaks that no air comes out his nose so the palate is closed very well adn that he will not have that nasally tone to his speech.

We finished the day with a full cleft team summary and headed for home at 2:30 pm. We made it home by 6:30 pm. We were all bushed!

It was an excellant visit to Shriner's. Kole has beat so many odds to be as far as he is with his Cleft. When we chose to add him to our family we had so many concerns with a 3rd degree cleft palate and cleft lip. He has proven so many wrong. He can suck on a straw, he can blow up balloons, he can blow his nose all the things that we learned he would not be able to do. We are extremely lucky! So is Kole!