Thursday, August 13, 2009
Will's Surgery
Will had his palate and dental surgery today and everything went well. The surgery lasted nearly 3 hours. The dentist ended up removing 5 teeth that had become abscessed. One he was finished the oral surgeon worked on the palate. He was successfully able to close the palate today. Will will be on a soft diet for at least 2 weeks while he heals. He may be able to go home tomorrow if things go well. He has eaten a little tonight and drank some juice so that is good progress.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Will's ENT appointment
Will had his ENT appointment today. He had alot of dried wax in his ears, that got cleaned out with the help of a large microscope. He of course did not like this but mostly stayed still and cried out, but not real loud. He also has think fluid in his ears. Due to his moderate rising to mild hearing loss as the sounds get louder the doctor recommended getting the tubes in before the palate surgery. I agreed that this would be a good idea so he will have tubes placed and a cut in the ear canal to drain the thick fluid and hopefully improve his speech and hearing.
Will palate surgery
We have a surgery date for Will he will have his cleft palate, and gums closed. He will also have his teeth cleaned, x-rayed and repaired. All this will occur August 13th, unless they have a cancellation.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Adding to the travel part of the blog
I am slowly adding posts from the last two days in Nanjing and our time in Guangzhou. To keep things in order they are being backdated to April 24-30 so that they are at least in the correct month. Remember we use comment moderation so leave your comment and then it will post within 24 hours most of the time.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
One more thing from the cleft apointment
I forgot to mention that Will's right ear is shaped different and smaller then the left ear. When I asked the plastic surgeon about it he said it could be fixed when his lip and nose is revised between 4 and 5. I liked what it is called "a Spock ear" as in Spock from Star Trek. So the ear is not a problem or a sign of a syndrome. The ear is formed about the same time the rest of the face is.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Cleft palate team visit
Well it was a long afternoon of visits with the dentist, the plastic surgeon, the speech language pathologist and the audiologist. He is 37 1/2 inches tall and 31 pounds so he has gained an inch and a half and probably about 2 pounds as he did have a wet diaper on. Our appointment time was 1:30, but we did not start the visits until after 2.
First up was the dentist who looked quite young, but seemed very knowledgeable. First he explained that they worked with the plastic surgeon and tried to do as much work at the same time as other surgeries. He then said he expected Will to have alot of issues and I said the pediatrician had seen lots of brown spots and cavities. He looked at Will's teeth and said he was missing alot of the enamel and had many teeth with obvious cavities. I said that the almost nightly milk bottle to help him go to sleep probably did not help and he said no. He saw how resistant Will was to having his teeth looked at, he stated that they would do the cleaning, x-rays and all necessary dental work done under anestia. The list of possibilities was a little overwhelming: fillings, caps, crowns, root canals and extractions if necessary. The baby teeth do need to last him a little while so he will get them taken care of soon. The dentist said that they could find teeth the were in the actual soft palate or occasionally growing in the nose as the cleft palate could really change the direction the teeth grow in without bone to anchor them to the jaw.
Next up was the plastic surgeon who will close his palate. He started by saying all of this was fixable and that it would take time. When I indicated I was aware it was all fixable and would take several surgeries, as well as I was a special education teacher he got more detailed. He had a great bed side manner, introduced himself to Will and grandma and grandpa Ohio. I liked that he never tried to get Will's mouth open, but instead used the tongue depressor and his hands to move his lips and face gently so he could see most of the mouth. He pointed out that on the left side of the cleft in the gum he had a tooth growing in sideways that would have to be pulled as it was not useful. I'm not sure if he has a tooth on the other side, but it is quite possible. He also stated that will will need the gums closed, to help the teeth grow in and cut down on infections. He said the palate was very wide and might take two surgeries to close properly. (We meet a family in the waiting room whose daughter was to have her second surgery to finish closing the palate this summer. Mom was very pleased with the work so far and her daughters first surgery was in December) He said the schedule for summer was very full and it may be the fall before he could get Will on the schedule, he also wanted him to have several months to gain weight and eat lots of protein to help with the healing. Most children get their cleft palate fixed by 12 months old and that it is much harder for older children to heal. One of the reasons is that their is bacteria on the teeth and that they have not had as good of nutrition in the orphanage. He commented that most of the Chinese children he sees will eat as many boiled eggs as you put in front of them and this is true of Will he has eat as many as three in one siting and probably would have eaten more if they were cooked. I will be making him more as they are a good source of protein. Of course we want it to be sooner, but it will all work out in God's timing. He said the next surgery would be before kindergarten to revise the lip and nose. He said that children with bilateral cleft palate and lip have more surgeries then those with a unilateral cleft. He was very comforting and provided lots of information. He answered everyone's questions. He said that vegetables hurt his cleft and that is why he does not like them much. We should get a surgery date in two to three weeks as he will need to have the dentist and surgeon, probably the ENT for tubes.
Next up was speech language pathologist (SLP) Dr. Riski he was very easy going, explained how he got interested in cleft palate children in the early 70's. He talked about how to work with him now to keep him from leaning more bad habits. We are to work on the nasal sounds m, n, w, h, and y to say functional, social words, as well as p,b,t,d,s and sh sounds, he is to whisper, work on blowing through a whistle and to hold his nose to close of the palate and train him to properly use his vocal cords. We will start speech therapy at the clinic in mid-June. He looked at Will's mouth and thought that his short palate was long enough not to need to tighten the back of the throat when the palate surgery is, as it needs to vibrate for breathing and if he was to hypenasel later it could be fixed with one of two surgeries. He said Will already has bad habits in Mandarin and we are trying to keep him from learning more bad habits. So we will be working on speech alot this summer.
We then went to have a hearing test as many cleft children have fluid in their ears. He has fluid in both ears and a mild to moderate hearing loss in at least one ear. The reliability was fair as we needed a second examiner in the sound both. He did not move for the softer sounds and seemed confuse as to wear the mid tones came from. He quickly turned when the sound was normal or loud. So now we have to see the ENT to see if they think we should put in tubes when the palate is repaired or sooner.
So lots of information to digest and more follow up appointments to make.
First up was the dentist who looked quite young, but seemed very knowledgeable. First he explained that they worked with the plastic surgeon and tried to do as much work at the same time as other surgeries. He then said he expected Will to have alot of issues and I said the pediatrician had seen lots of brown spots and cavities. He looked at Will's teeth and said he was missing alot of the enamel and had many teeth with obvious cavities. I said that the almost nightly milk bottle to help him go to sleep probably did not help and he said no. He saw how resistant Will was to having his teeth looked at, he stated that they would do the cleaning, x-rays and all necessary dental work done under anestia. The list of possibilities was a little overwhelming: fillings, caps, crowns, root canals and extractions if necessary. The baby teeth do need to last him a little while so he will get them taken care of soon. The dentist said that they could find teeth the were in the actual soft palate or occasionally growing in the nose as the cleft palate could really change the direction the teeth grow in without bone to anchor them to the jaw.
Next up was the plastic surgeon who will close his palate. He started by saying all of this was fixable and that it would take time. When I indicated I was aware it was all fixable and would take several surgeries, as well as I was a special education teacher he got more detailed. He had a great bed side manner, introduced himself to Will and grandma and grandpa Ohio. I liked that he never tried to get Will's mouth open, but instead used the tongue depressor and his hands to move his lips and face gently so he could see most of the mouth. He pointed out that on the left side of the cleft in the gum he had a tooth growing in sideways that would have to be pulled as it was not useful. I'm not sure if he has a tooth on the other side, but it is quite possible. He also stated that will will need the gums closed, to help the teeth grow in and cut down on infections. He said the palate was very wide and might take two surgeries to close properly. (We meet a family in the waiting room whose daughter was to have her second surgery to finish closing the palate this summer. Mom was very pleased with the work so far and her daughters first surgery was in December) He said the schedule for summer was very full and it may be the fall before he could get Will on the schedule, he also wanted him to have several months to gain weight and eat lots of protein to help with the healing. Most children get their cleft palate fixed by 12 months old and that it is much harder for older children to heal. One of the reasons is that their is bacteria on the teeth and that they have not had as good of nutrition in the orphanage. He commented that most of the Chinese children he sees will eat as many boiled eggs as you put in front of them and this is true of Will he has eat as many as three in one siting and probably would have eaten more if they were cooked. I will be making him more as they are a good source of protein. Of course we want it to be sooner, but it will all work out in God's timing. He said the next surgery would be before kindergarten to revise the lip and nose. He said that children with bilateral cleft palate and lip have more surgeries then those with a unilateral cleft. He was very comforting and provided lots of information. He answered everyone's questions. He said that vegetables hurt his cleft and that is why he does not like them much. We should get a surgery date in two to three weeks as he will need to have the dentist and surgeon, probably the ENT for tubes.
Next up was speech language pathologist (SLP) Dr. Riski he was very easy going, explained how he got interested in cleft palate children in the early 70's. He talked about how to work with him now to keep him from leaning more bad habits. We are to work on the nasal sounds m, n, w, h, and y to say functional, social words, as well as p,b,t,d,s and sh sounds, he is to whisper, work on blowing through a whistle and to hold his nose to close of the palate and train him to properly use his vocal cords. We will start speech therapy at the clinic in mid-June. He looked at Will's mouth and thought that his short palate was long enough not to need to tighten the back of the throat when the palate surgery is, as it needs to vibrate for breathing and if he was to hypenasel later it could be fixed with one of two surgeries. He said Will already has bad habits in Mandarin and we are trying to keep him from learning more bad habits. So we will be working on speech alot this summer.
We then went to have a hearing test as many cleft children have fluid in their ears. He has fluid in both ears and a mild to moderate hearing loss in at least one ear. The reliability was fair as we needed a second examiner in the sound both. He did not move for the softer sounds and seemed confuse as to wear the mid tones came from. He quickly turned when the sound was normal or loud. So now we have to see the ENT to see if they think we should put in tubes when the palate is repaired or sooner.
So lots of information to digest and more follow up appointments to make.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
The zoo in Guangzhou
Will was not to into the big animals that moved around but he liked the giraffes. He was still pretty camera shy while we were in China.
This was looking at some of the Asian animals. Will is a mouth breather and so his mouth often is hanging open. He also really didn't know what to think about all the different animals.
He was not happy because the camel had been walking towards him. He did not like many of the big animals unless they stood still. I think he thought the animals could come and get him. He did enjoy the plants and the people.Friday, April 24, 2009
Mandarin Garden hotel
We stayed in this hotel from Monday till Friday afternoon in the capital city of Jiangsu province.
The hotel was considered a "5 star" by Chinese standards. It was a nice, but somewhat older hotel. It did have alot of things to do near by. I was amused that we were staying on the executive floor. The next picture is of our camera shy son. We stayed in room 1015 in Shanghai as well. I liked that we had a door bell that the staff did use if they came to our room. The buffet was good and the service was very good. It was the easiest meal of the day and we tried to eat as much as we could. Some days Will would sit in the high chair some days it was my lap. But he ate well everyday.
The hotel was considered a "5 star" by Chinese standards. It was a nice, but somewhat older hotel. It did have alot of things to do near by. I was amused that we were staying on the executive floor. The next picture is of our camera shy son. We stayed in room 1015 in Shanghai as well. I liked that we had a door bell that the staff did use if they came to our room. The buffet was good and the service was very good. It was the easiest meal of the day and we tried to eat as much as we could. Some days Will would sit in the high chair some days it was my lap. But he ate well everyday.
Pictures from the hotel in Nanjing
We had brought a small car (red) and plane (blue) that had Will's name on them and he liked playing with them. He laughed alot with us in the hotel room and liked jumping on the bed as well.The beach ball was a great item to have and packed easily. We just had to make sure it didn't hit the lamps to hard. Will like to hit it across the bed to his baba and to roll it on the floor anytime we were in the room. He was very interested in playing and this was the best interaction we had with him. He was always willing to play.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Doctor's appointment
Will did not like this trip to the doctor much more then he liked the one in China. He was okay in the waiting room, but when we started to take off his clothes he started to cry and scream. He will be 30 months old on Monday.
He is 36 inches long, (a yard stick as the Dr. said), 28.88 pounds in just his diaper. He is not only on the American chart for height and weight but at 50% for both height and weight. The Dr. was impressed with his height and weight for living in an orphanage for the first two plus years of life. The Dr. was very low key and quiet with him, he started with reviewing the information we had for him and our answers to the developmental questions they ask at each well child visit. He thought the not eating many vegetables or crunchy fruits might be cleft related and that the feeding specialist at the crano-facial team could help with that. He said it would take a little while for him to pick up the language, and that the Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) on the cleft team would be a good resource for what was learning a new language and what was cleft related. After the exam he said he was in good health, he does have lots of cavities.
We have chosen to just redo all the immunizations on the catch-up schedule the CDC recommends, (see this web site http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/schedules/child-schedule.htm). They also drew blood to redo all of his blood work. He will not get the Hep A and B vaccines unless he does not have the antibodies in his blood stream. So hopefully that will be two less vaccines he needs.
We have learned that what he does not like about the Dr. visits is taking all of his clothes off, so hopefully his cleft appointment will go better May 20th.
He is 36 inches long, (a yard stick as the Dr. said), 28.88 pounds in just his diaper. He is not only on the American chart for height and weight but at 50% for both height and weight. The Dr. was impressed with his height and weight for living in an orphanage for the first two plus years of life. The Dr. was very low key and quiet with him, he started with reviewing the information we had for him and our answers to the developmental questions they ask at each well child visit. He thought the not eating many vegetables or crunchy fruits might be cleft related and that the feeding specialist at the crano-facial team could help with that. He said it would take a little while for him to pick up the language, and that the Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) on the cleft team would be a good resource for what was learning a new language and what was cleft related. After the exam he said he was in good health, he does have lots of cavities.
We have chosen to just redo all the immunizations on the catch-up schedule the CDC recommends, (see this web site http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/schedules/child-schedule.htm). They also drew blood to redo all of his blood work. He will not get the Hep A and B vaccines unless he does not have the antibodies in his blood stream. So hopefully that will be two less vaccines he needs.
We have learned that what he does not like about the Dr. visits is taking all of his clothes off, so hopefully his cleft appointment will go better May 20th.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
First day home
Boy does it feel good to type those words. Sleeping in our own bed was more comfortable than China. Unfortunately Will showed off his very good gross (big muscle) skills by climbing out of his crib twice. The first time was shortly after we put him to bed. David went to check on him after we heard a thud on the monitor. He was greeted by Will walking around the bedroom. So he brought him downstairs and he fell asleep on him. We took him upstairs when we went to bed, he is staying in our room for right now. We put him in the crib and laid down to go to sleep. We hear a thud and then he was standing on my side of the bed, so he slept in our bed for the night. Went well till 4 am and he was awake for the day by 7:30am.
He did pretty well today, he still prefers his mama to his baba. He played with the toys, ate all 3 meals in his chair. He did get upset while I was up showering and managed to need a new outfit and so did baba. He still does not like baths, although he will play in the water in the sink. He does not like to be in high places to have his diaper changed. Was not fun on the plane as he had a death grip on one arm and the edge of the changing table. He still does not like it but is not crying as loud or holding on so tight. So some progress.
He did pretty well today, he still prefers his mama to his baba. He played with the toys, ate all 3 meals in his chair. He did get upset while I was up showering and managed to need a new outfit and so did baba. He still does not like baths, although he will play in the water in the sink. He does not like to be in high places to have his diaper changed. Was not fun on the plane as he had a death grip on one arm and the edge of the changing table. He still does not like it but is not crying as loud or holding on so tight. So some progress.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
HOME AT LAST!!!!
WE ARE HOME!!!
We made it through customs and immigration without any problems. Will is now officially a citizen of the United States. It will be nice to sleep in our own bed tonight. The beds in China were like sleeping on a set of box springs with no mattress.
Stay tuned for additional details and pictures from our trip.
We made it through customs and immigration without any problems. Will is now officially a citizen of the United States. It will be nice to sleep in our own bed tonight. The beds in China were like sleeping on a set of box springs with no mattress.
Stay tuned for additional details and pictures from our trip.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Goodbye China, Hello Home!!!!
We are at the Airport Hotel in Shanghai and are about to head down to the Airport for our flight home. They had free Internet here so we decided to make one last post from China. The Consulate visit yesterday went well and all the paperwork is in order. One last step to go, getting through customs in Atlanta. Shouldn't be much of a problem though.
USA here we come!!!
USA here we come!!!
Monday, April 13, 2009
It is now Tuesday morning in Guangzhou. We go to the U. S. Consulate this afternoon to pick up Will's visa and then fly to Shanghai. We will not get to the hotel in Shanghai until around 11:00 pm and then fly out tomorrow so we probably won't have time to post any more updates.
Here are a few more pictures:
Here are a few more pictures:
The pictures above are in the "Swan Room". A play room set up at the White Swan by Mattel. It has lots of toys. The yellow trays along the wall had legos in them. Will consolidated all the legos into the one on the end emptying each tray one by one.
The pictures below are from the Guangzhou Zoological Park. We went with the other family from our agency who you can see in the second picture. Molly, our guide is in the front leading the way. The third picture is one of the performers in a show at the Zoo.Sunday, April 12, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
pictures from Saturday afternoon
The picture on the left is of Will in his borrowed stroller. When he first sat in the stroller he screamed and screamed. We took the stroller back to the hotel and let him explore it. He decided it wasn't so bad. He likes to ride in it now. The first two pictures are taken in our hotel the White Swan.
The next three pictures are from Lucy's restaurant that serves a wide variety of food and drink, including iced tea, congee, soft scrambled eggs (for the toddlers). 
Visa photo and medical examination
We met the other family in our travel group and 
our guide Molly on the first floor of the hotel. The other family is from Florida and adopted a little girl. We walked to the photo shop to get their visa photo's taken. Will started to cry as soon as he saw the stool and background. When I set him down in the stool he started to twist around and to scream. I had to hold him facing forward with one hand and use the other one to keep his head looking forward. They need a full face photo with both ears showing. We have a crying visa photo, to go with the crying passport and family day picture. The first photo is above the back part of the medical clinic. We were the first group to arrive at the clinic. David filled out the paperwork, 5 questions and a signature. Then we had to see 3 different doctors. The second picture is of his visit with the Dr. for medical and surgical. This is the only Dr. that looked at his medical records. The picture below is of the same Dr. checking him out, he cried the entire time. He was found to be healthy.
The next photo is of him getting his temperature tak
en
en he did not have a fever. He was measured and weighed. He was a few centimeters longer than the table to measure him so they took a measuring tape to determine how much longer he was than the table.
The last photo is of the ENT checking him out. The hearing test was hitting a key on a keyboard and seeing if he turned toward the sound. We waited for the other family and then we walked back to the hotel.
Flying from Nanjing to Guangzhou
Our flight was suppose to leave at 7pm, didn't take off until 7:35. Will does not like to be buckled into any kind of seat. So when I buckled him in before take off he screamed and cried and turned red. As soon as we were airborne, I undid his seat belt and put him on my lap he was happy. So I decided for landing to skip the seat belt, no crying and their was a gentlemen in the row in front of us without a seat belt.
We collected our luggage,was meet by a representative from our hotel and got to the hotel by 10:45. Our rep Molly meet us at the check in and gave us what time we needed to meet her in the morning 9 am for a medical exam and visa picture. So by the time we got to sleep it was 11:30.
We collected our luggage,was meet by a representative from our hotel and got to the hotel by 10:45. Our rep Molly meet us at the check in and gave us what time we needed to meet her in the morning 9 am for a medical exam and visa picture. So by the time we got to sleep it was 11:30.
The last of the paperwork in Nanjing
After our sightseeing in the morning we stooped at the Burger King for lunch. Then we headed up to our room for Will to take his nap and for our guide to call saying she had the last of our paperwork.
Will will mostly sleep in the crib, but it is very short and the mattress was set pretty high so if he didn't want to stay in it he could get his leg over the railing and climb out. So a few naps and one night he slept in our bed. Unfortunately for me his favorite place to sleep is lying on top of me. He does not feel very heavy when he lays down on me and so it is not so bad. He lays pretty still if he is laying on mama, but if he lays between us he moves around alot. Today was one of those days that he was not going to sleep in the crib. So we had a nap together of about an hour and a half.
Our guide was to call the room around noon to let us know she had gotten his Chinese passport, the notarized and translated copies of his birth certificate, abandonment certificate, and adoption certificate. We never got a call but she came to the room at a little after 2 pm with all of his documents. We got 3 copies of each notarized document, a letter saying it was a notarized copy, and for the translated documents that it was a true and accurate translation. We put these in our document envelope in the backpack to make sure we had them with us on the plane.
Our guide said she would send the bell boy up at 3:15. So the wait continued, unfortunately Will only slept about another 20 minutes. So we had packed everything up and were waiting in our room. It is not a large room, the biggest advantage is it faced a main road with lots of vehicles, motorized bikes, bikes and people going by and Will loves to watch everything happening outside the room.
Well 3:15 passed and no bell boy came, so David would go look(not steeping all the way out of the way out of the door) in the hallway to see if the bellboy was coming, and then Will would try to close the door on baba, laughing as he did it. This "game" lasted for about 15 minutes. David said "I thought she said 3:15", and we knew we were suppose to leave the hotel at 4 pm. So we decided to call front desk to ask for the bell boy. The bellboy came up and loaded all our luggage. We brought a duffel bag to help us stay under 44 pounds per piece of luggage for the in country flights. So we went downstairs with our luggage, checked out and waited for our guide and van driver. The guide arrived at about 3:45 running in the door and apologizing for running late. We said it was fine and we loaded the van to head to the airport.
Will will mostly sleep in the crib, but it is very short and the mattress was set pretty high so if he didn't want to stay in it he could get his leg over the railing and climb out. So a few naps and one night he slept in our bed. Unfortunately for me his favorite place to sleep is lying on top of me. He does not feel very heavy when he lays down on me and so it is not so bad. He lays pretty still if he is laying on mama, but if he lays between us he moves around alot. Today was one of those days that he was not going to sleep in the crib. So we had a nap together of about an hour and a half.
Our guide was to call the room around noon to let us know she had gotten his Chinese passport, the notarized and translated copies of his birth certificate, abandonment certificate, and adoption certificate. We never got a call but she came to the room at a little after 2 pm with all of his documents. We got 3 copies of each notarized document, a letter saying it was a notarized copy, and for the translated documents that it was a true and accurate translation. We put these in our document envelope in the backpack to make sure we had them with us on the plane.
Our guide said she would send the bell boy up at 3:15. So the wait continued, unfortunately Will only slept about another 20 minutes. So we had packed everything up and were waiting in our room. It is not a large room, the biggest advantage is it faced a main road with lots of vehicles, motorized bikes, bikes and people going by and Will loves to watch everything happening outside the room.
Well 3:15 passed and no bell boy came, so David would go look(not steeping all the way out of the way out of the door) in the hallway to see if the bellboy was coming, and then Will would try to close the door on baba, laughing as he did it. This "game" lasted for about 15 minutes. David said "I thought she said 3:15", and we knew we were suppose to leave the hotel at 4 pm. So we decided to call front desk to ask for the bell boy. The bellboy came up and loaded all our luggage. We brought a duffel bag to help us stay under 44 pounds per piece of luggage for the in country flights. So we went downstairs with our luggage, checked out and waited for our guide and van driver. The guide arrived at about 3:45 running in the door and apologizing for running late. We said it was fine and we loaded the van to head to the airport.
Last day in Nanjing
On our last day in Nanjing we went for a walk in the area around our hotel. The area is called the Confucian Temple area as the center of the area has a temple honoring the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucious. The area is like a giant flea market with lots of little shops and street vendors. We bought some traditional chinese children's outfits at one shop.
We also tried the Noodle restaurant you can see here above Burger King
Here are Lore & Will in front of one of the many statues in the area.
Below are some examples of the fine dining options in the area around the hotel, to be fair we tried each one.
We also tried the Noodle restaurant you can see here above Burger King
