We had our evaluation at the IU recently. Could I be any more proud of this girl? She did so well with all of the tests. She surprised me a bit picking out which boy in pictures was running and which one was eating etc. etc. They had a Chinese translator there for her but she didn't really need her. She is doing so well with English. There were all sorts of specialists there evaluating her fine and gross motor skills, cognitive abilities, and language development. Seemed like her receptive language was very good but expressive language a bit lacking. She will need speech for sure because it is very hard to understand what she is saying. We don't think she will make too much progress in speech until she has her next two surgeries Regardless, we will still go one time a week once her IEP is written and we meet with them again. There is an IU speech therapist that specializes in kids with clefts and works out of the Lancaster Clinic so we will go there for speech. Other than speech I don't think she will qualify for any other services but maybe they will qualify her and just come once a month to give me ideas to keep her on track developmentally. They were all such amazing, upbeat, competent people!
We scheduled another team visit at the Lancaster Clinic early in January to discuss and arrange for surgery. It will most likely be a total lip revision and z-plasty (lengthening of the palate). These are not dangerous surgeries but will require a couple days in the hospital and 6 weeks of a soft diet. Good thing she likes congee and noodles! The lip repair takes about 6 months to heal. the lip revision worries me the most. She is so active. I can't imagine her being careful not to fall or bump into something and she will probably have to wear arm restraints for awhile so she does not touch her face. Oh, it all makes me sad but from what we hear from her major palate surgery in China she is very brave. She will be a trooper about it all and Mom and Dad will be a mess for sure!
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