Well we finally have a date for Graysen's 2nd surgery....June 29th. Dr. Ray will close the small hole in Graysen's palate. We are excited about this one. We should see some improvement in his speech once it is closed. Dr. Ray is still concerned about the fact that this might now correct his nasal sound when he speaks. If that is the case, then he has a plan to fix it. Graysen will be in the hospital overnight & then on soft foods for a few weeks. I am a little scared about the soft foods thing, but the good part is Graysen is a very fast healer.

Once this is done, the next surgery will more than likely be his bone graft and/or the lengthening of the area between his nostrils to give him more of a nose. These will be a way off, but still in the future. We do know that he does not have his 2 adult front teeth, so there will be implants in his future along with braces.

We are so blessed to be able to parent Graysen & love him! We were also blessed that Graysen's initial surgeries were already done before he became our child. We don't know who paid for this, but there are wonderful organizations out there that do these surgeries with the help of donations, http://www.operationsmile.org/ & http://www.smiletrain.org/ . It only cost a few hundred dollars to give a child a new smile!

We are currently in the process of paperchasing for another little boy from China & are also open to another cleft lip & palate as we have a great surgeon & wonderful speech therapist!

Blessings,
Tracey

1 Comment

1. Rebecca on June 19, 2010

   Hi Tracey! I found your blog while I was searching on the internet. I adopted my daughter from Fushun SWI March of 2009 also! I have some pictures with my daughter and your son together! My daughter has a repaired cleft lip and palate. I would love to chat and share info sometime.
   Rebecca
   barbiensims@yahoo.com