Surgery Scheduled and Dentist Visit

Gracie Mei's surgery on her lip and palate will be May 5th. It will be at Hershey Medical Center and she will spend one night most likely. Again, it is a complete lip revision to make her lip functional and to clean up some scarring. They will also lengthen her palate with a procedure called a z-plasty and attempt to close a hole in her palate. It will be a three hour surgery. She will be on a soft diet for 6 weeks.

We also finally had a dental visit. The clinic recommended Dr. Ross and we could not be more grateful! I had nightmares about how the visit was going to go. You just don't want a kid with a lot of mouth work ahead of them to be traumatized by any doctor. Well, she is in great hands. They didn't attempt to clean her teeth or do x-rays or anything. Dr. Ross played and joked around with her until she was ready to show him her mouth. She did a great job and he got a good idea of what needs to be done. It is quite extensive. 5000$ extensive!!! And that is JUST the dental fees NOT the hospital fees!!! We are working on insurance coverage which can be tricky. Cross your fingers! She will be sedated at the hospital to do the work. The biggest question is whether or not he will be able to repair the top teeth on the cleft side He will take x-rays immediately before the surgery so we will not know until after it is completed. The alternative to restoring the teeth is pulling the teeth. This is really not ideal but might be necessary depending on the amount of decay. They are not adult teeth but holding on to your baby teeth is important. We will pray they can all be restored.

It has been awhile. Thanks for checking back on us!!!