First Cleft Palate Clinic

Today was a big day for Wyatt! He went to Cleft Palate Clinic for his first comprehensive interdisciplinary evaluation and treatment planning. This will be a yearly activity for him.

Before Wyatt was born we learned we would be working with a cleft team which would consist of a variety of specialists to coordinate his care because clefts involve so many different things. We have met a few of these specialist over the past two years but this was the first time we met with all of them on one day.

The first thing we did was meet with Dr. Anderson the Program Director. He gave us an overview of the day and asked about any concerns we had. After this brief meeting with Dr. Anderson they took us to our room.

The specialists would be stopping by one by one throughout the morning to meet with Wyatt.

The first couple of visitors checked his height and weight and took pictures.

Then we met with Anna the Cleft Team Coordinator and Speech and Language Pathologist. We have been working with Anna since before Wyatt was born. Anna reviewed his speech plan and they talked and played for quite a while.

His words are emerging and while there are some things he needs to work on he is doing well. We will continue to work on speech with the district but go back to meet with Anna in 6 months to see if he should start private speech therapy. She said, “It is fun to see him doing so well.”

The Nurse Practitioner was next. She went over his overall health history and the big picture stuff. She checked his ears to see how they looked and if his tubes that were put in a year and a half ago were still in. All looked good!

The Audiologist and a graduate student were the next to visit with Wyatt.

They checked his ears and did several hearing tests. His ears aren't plugged and the tubes seem to be functioning well. His right ear didn't pass one of the tests so we will schedule a follow up visit with an ENT a local clinic to have that checked out. Wyatt will have hearing tests every 6 months until he is 5 to make sure everything looks good.

Dr. Lacey, Wyatt’s plastic surgeon, also stopped by to take a look at everything.

He said everything looks good and his scar on his lip looks great. Wyatt is missing one tooth where his cleft is and Dr. Lacey was stumped by a rogue tooth or bone fragment emerging from the roof of Wyatt’s mouth. Wyatt's lip, palate and everything else look good so there shouldn't be a need for surgery for a while.

The dental team came in next.

Everything looks good with his teeth! We were referred to a pediatric dentist for ongoing care because they have more experience dealing with little ones and special cases such as clefts. One of our follow up items is to get him in soon so they can do xrays of the tooth/bone in the roof of his mouth and see about having it taken out.

The last specialist we saw was Dr. Service the ENT.

Wyatt's ears were checked for the third or fourth time today and they still looked good. :) He said Wyatt’s ears look healthy and his nose looks good too. Apparently, he has huge tonsils. This really isn't a surprise considering what Bella had going on. We will just keep an eye on them for now. He said his tubes are still there and seem like they are working.

Phew! All Done!

After meeting with everyone we got a break for lunch while they met to discuss his case.

We had lunch at Big 10 and then walked around a bit.

When we came back from lunch we met with Anna and went through Wyatt's plan. Dr. Anderson heard about Wyatt's bone fragment/spur/tooth and wanted to check out so he came in to take a look before we left.

Wyatt was exhausted after meeting with all of his old and new friends and fell asleep within minutes of getting in the car.

We will be getting a full report in about 6 weeks. It was a long but a very good day. Wyatt was amazing! He was so patient and followed directions. We were so proud of this little man today.