Palate Surgery

We just left Nathan as he went into the operating room.  He is having his palate surgery this morning, and we expect him to be in surgery for at least 3 hours.  The surgery is called Palatoplasty.

Palatoplasty is a surgical procedure used to correct or reconstruct the palate in a person with a cleft palate. The basic goals of the procedure are to close the abnormal opening between the nose and mouth, to help the patient develop normal speech, and to aid in swallowing, breathing and normal development of associated structures in the mouth. Any person with any degree of a cleft palate is a candidate for palatoplasty. The procedure is usually performed on infants. The ideal age for the patient is between six and twelve months of age. If the surgery is carried out much beyond three years of age, speech development may not be optimal. 80% of the time, development of the palate and speech is normal after only one procedure.^[1]

1. ^ Pediatric ENT West central Florida  

 

Day One

9:23 AM Just talked with the Doctors and everything is going great!  

10:35 AM Doctors just let us know that Nathan is still doing great and he still has a couple of hours to go.

1:15 PM Nathan is out of surgery and he is doing great!  The surgery was a success as the entire palate was repaired.  Needs to spend a few days in the hospital still, but he is doing great. 

I'm So Proud of Him!!!

Day Two

9:30 AM Nathan is still very sore and swollen today, Bianca had to hold him all last night to get him to fall asleep.  Bianca is a amazing, it doesnt matter how much pain she might be, she will always hold her son.

11:39 AM (GREAT NEWS)  Nathan has drank 2 0z of formula and he needs to drink 16 oz today in order to go home tomorrow!!!

Nathan's 1ST Birthday!!!

On Saturday Nathan turned ONE and he had a wonderful day.  We had a Halloween themed party for him, that included pumpkins, candy, costumes and decorations.  He got a ton of new gifts from our friends and family.

On Tuesday Nathan goes in to finally close his palate.  The surgery will take about 3 hours or more and he will be in the hospital for at least 3 or 4 days.  We're excited for this process to come to an end, because it will help Nathan live a better life.   He will be able to eat, breathe, suck and talk better.  All the things that you want any child to be able to do without any problems.  I will update everyone once the surgery starts.

Lip Surgery

Today is one of those days that Bianca and I have been looking forward too for some time now.  Nathan is currently in Surgery to get his Lip and nose corrected and finally brought together.  This is his 3rd of four surgeries that we expect this year and we are looking forward to seeing Nathan in a few hours.  We don't know what to expect how different he will look, if he'll look different at all.  Will just have to wait and see and that's the tough thing about going through this as a parent.  We are sitting and waiting for the doctor to come out and tell us how everything went and to see how he is doing.

We brought Briana this time and even though she is only 2 she asked to come to the hospital and see Nathan off to surgery.  Its tough to not only send your child into to surgery but, even tougher when your other child gets sad seeing her brother go into surgery.  Briana is such a good big sister and we're very proud of her.

Update!
Nathan is out of surgery and he is doing great!  He is a little groggy as to be expected, but he looks great. I attached a picture of him.

Before Surgery

After Surgery

Nathan Update!

Its been a long time...

Its been too long, Nathan has had two surgeries leading up to the most important surgery in July.  He had the latham device (a surgical placed retainer designed to bring the parts of the mouth closer together for complete palate and lip repair) placed in his mouth in February, which was a huge success. Nathan didn't do as well as expected with the recovery time as we had to spend a few extra days at the hospital.  Nathan had his last surgery in April to take out the latham device and bring the gums together.  That surgery went a lot smoother than the first one and he was out of the hospital a lot faster.

up Next...

Nathan is going in for his palate and lip reconstruction on July 19th.  This is the longest and most difficult surgery to date.  He will most likely be under for as long as 8 hours, and this is the most painful.  Expected hospital recovery time can be up to a week.  Were praying that things go as smoothly as the last 2 surgeries.  I promise that i will continue to update you on the status of Nathan and make this blog more regular

God bless

Jonathan

Its Been A While

Its been a long time since i have posted any blogs, but as many of you know that is due to the fact that i have been so busy with my son.  It has been difficult to sit down and make time to update the blog as often as i would like.  Please look for updates from all the surgeries over the next couple of days.

Thanks again and god bless

Fathers Point of View

Being a father of a child with a birth defect is much different than being a parent of child who is born normal.  The education needed to understand how to deal with the abnormality, the process of requesting the assistance that has been assured to us by the medical community and the state.  I already have spent over 40 hours alone on paperwork, social workers and phone calls just for the assistance.  To say that this experience has been overwhelming would be an understatement to say the least.  When i decided to write this blog i wanted to give the fathers point of view in regards to all the above and everything else relating to my son Nathan.  However, after only a month and half of my son being on this earth i want to do more... 

We are lucky as a family, we have good insurance that covers my son, maybe more than the next family.  Not every family is as lucky as mine.  I want to be able to help. assist other families who are less fortunate than mine to get the same medical options as my family.  The only way to be able to assist and make that work is through raising money and awareness both locally and nationally.  In the coming weeks i will be posting information about MiCleft the Michigan Cleft Network which is the he ONLY tax-exempt network that advocates for Michigan families affected by facial differences, and not the specific teams that service them...  I am hoping to partner with them and help raise as much money as we can so that we can help ALL kids regain some formal of normal due to this birth defect and other facial differences.

I have attached a link to  MiCleft -The Michigan Cleft Network


Stay Tuned and Happy Holidays

"Its Been A While"

Its been a while since I posted on this blog, but with a newborn son its been hard to get anything done...


So a lot has happened over the last few weeks that has been great.  We brought Nathan home on November 1st and when we brought him home he still had a feeding tube in.  Shortly after getting him home we were able to remove the feeding tube and feed him exclusively through the haberman bottle.  He has been able to go from 43 ML of formula to just over 3 ounces of breastmilk per feeding since we brought him home over 3 weeks ago.  He came home weighing in at 6 lbs 5 ounces and now he weighs 7 lbs 6 ounces.  So he is gaining weight at a good pace right now as we start preparing for the first round of surgeries.

We have decided to work with The Cranofacial Institute of Michigan for Nathan and we met with them here back  2 weeks ago.  They set us up with an orthodontist out of Clinton Township who will place a special device called a latham device that will be place in his mouth with screws.  It will slowly start to pull all the parts of the mouth closer together so that its easier for the surgeons to work.  They will put this device in sometime after the 1st of the year when Nathan is at least 10 lbs. 

So with the holidays coming soon I wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season.