inconclusive

On Monday I took Isaac up to Primary Childrens Hospital for his Cranial Facial appointment. If you are just tuning in, the appointment was encouraged by Isaac’s speech therapist. She wanted to see if Isaac had any soft palette problems that would be hindering his progress in therapy (because he is not making much.) We had our doubts but were curious enough to go through with it.

After spending 3 hours in the waiting room and seeing 3 specialist for about 5 min each, we walked away a bit confused. 2 out of the 3 specialist thought they saw a possible bifid uvula in Isaac’s mouth.

You know the little dangly thing in the back of your throat? The one that the cartoon characters hang on to while they are being swallowed. Ya, it is suppose to be a U shape and a bifid uvula looks more like a W. The muscles haven’t closed properly. If it is there, it would indicate a cleft palette and other soft palette problems.

But it must be understood that Isaac was complete uncooperative. He would not talk, he would not open his month. He resisted every effort to get inside his mouth. He puckered up his lips, clenched his teeth and buried his little body into my arms. I was expecting a childrens hospital to be much more creative and exposed to this type of situation. But no, the doctors rooms were sterile, toyless and the docs had no idea how to get Isaac to warm up to them. They merely asked him how old his was and what was on his shirt. Isaac is much smarter than this. They then resorted to jamming and gagging him with a tongue depressor to get a look inside. Needless to say their looks were limited.

The first doc was a plastic surgeon. The most limited look perhaps but was almost certain he saw a bifid uvula. I was pretty surprised and thought “Gee, maybe this explains everything.” He suggested further studies to be sure.

The second doc was an ear, nose, throat guy. (Turns out he was the surgeon that had performed Isaac’s aspirated peanut surgery summer of 2007.) He said he got a pretty good look and said there was no bifid uvula. He only suggested a 6 month follow up to see if Isaac was progressing in his language at all.

The 3rd specialist was a speech therapist. She was the friendliest and Isaac actually opened his mouth for her on his own. Her view was still limited because of his tongue but she thought she saw a possible split. She suggested pushing forward with speech therapy. Even if he has a split, he is able to make some closure with his throat so nothing more would be done than that at this point.

There is something called a nasaloscopy where they stick a camera down the kids nose and have them talk. Then they can actually see if the throat is closing properly. It was obvious to everyone that Isaac would not cooperate with this procedure.

So now I just wait for a report. The team gets together and discusses their findings and make a plan for Isaac. I’m interested to learn what they decide because I was quite disappointed in the appointments themselves. I just wanted to say… “Take another look! Give me an answer!”

Isaac’s speech therapist was equally disappointed. I didn’t mention that she had come with me to the appointments. Once Isaac turns 3, in a month, she will no longer be working with him so I think she is anxious to get something concluded. She would really like further studies but I’m feeling more like… wait and see how he matures. It would certainly be easier to tell if something was actually wrong at age 5. But then there is the idea about early intervention and catch it early kind of stuff…. sigh!

So now Isaac has come down with a bad cough and a fever. I’ve enjoyed my little cuddle bug. It’s obvious he doesn’t feel good. He just went and tucked himself in for a nap which is extremely rare for my wild guy.

I sure love you Isaac! …if you are talking or not.