Little Posers

Good News!

We had Kai's post op visit yesterday. They did three different hearing tests on him and his hearing is 100 % ! I forgot to mention that he had tubes put in his ears during the lip operation. He had a cronic ear infection in both ears that the doc said was one of the worst he'd seen and Kai had probably had since birth (ear infections and clefts go hand in hand). We are so fortunate that there is no permanant damage or hearing loss. They also said during surgery that he has "good, healthy ear drums". YIPPEE.

The plastic surgeon is very happy with the way Kai's lip is healing and wants to do the palate repair in three months. The lip doesn't look as good as it did a week ago because the scar is making his lip pull up and tighten. The doc said this is part of the healing process and always happens and makes parents panic a bit. We have to massage several times daily and use Mederma or Vitamin E.

Kai's nose is as close to perfect as any repair I've ever seen. It's the hardest part of a cleft repair and almost always has to be re-done in the teen years. Dr. Flores said his goal was to "do it right the first time so no future repairs are needed". Boy, did he ever live up to his word! As the swelling goes down each day we are just thrilled beyond words. It looks amazing! Could he be any cuter?

15 days post op

14 days post op

13 days post op

"How does this new mouth work anyway?"

One week past stitches removal

We can't believe how great Kai's lip is healing. It's been exactly one week today since the stitches were removed and you can hardy see where they were. He just looks like a kid with chapped lips. He's enjoying having his picture taken again and is experimenting with new smiles. It's pretty funny.

Kai update

Kai is doing fantastic! We traveled to Riley again yesterday for the stitches to be removed. They had to put him under again and I thought he would be terrified the second we walked in the door, but he was a little brave man again. Didn't make a peep. Now he has a big piece of white tape where the stitches were. We thought the stitches were pretty cute and we're not too fond of the tape. He has to keep it on for two weeks and the no no's (arm restraits) too. He's eating everything in sight, but we have to feed him and it takes such a long time to feed a three year old! Plus his mouth is a lot smaller now so he can't take as big of bites. He doesn't like to look at himself in the mirror yet, but has just started looking at his pictures on the digital camera without looking away. Of course it took us a couple of days to get used to him too, but now we think he is just the most beautiful boy ever!!! Thank you to Dr. Flores, the incredibly talented plastic surgeon who performed Kai's operation and to the wonderful staff at Riley Children's Hospital.