I got a letter in the mail the other day, stating that Levi has been booked for his palate surgery! I was excited that we got some information, and expected the date to be in the fall sometime. I read further into the letter, and saw that it is booked for June 19th! That is so soon! I was pretty surprised to see this, as we had always been told that this wouldn’t be repaired until he was 9-12 months old and on June 19, Levi will be just 8 months old. As I thought about it more, however, I became excited that the surgery is so soon. For one thing, we will get this over with and we won’t have to think about it all summer. Next, I had been wondering lately how we would introduce Levi to different textures of food. Since starting him on solids at 6 months, we’d been told to keep everything very smooth and pureed so no pieces would get lodged in his cleft. Since his palate is now scheduled for repair already next month, we will be able to start that much sooner! Another reason is that since there is a space up through his nostril, when Levi is eating there is usually some food that comes out his nose! He usually just sneezes and keeps on going, but I can't imagine that it is very comfortable! I'm sure he will appreciate having that fixed! And the last, and I think most important reason, is that it hopefully will improve his speech development. He will still have to see a speech pathologist for assessment, and it sounds like he still might have difficulty with proper speech, but I hope that the effects will be minimized after this surgery.
Many people have asked me what will happen with this surgery. Honestly, I’m not 100% certain, since I haven’t been able to get details straight from his surgeon, but I’ve done some research myself and this is what I’ve been able to find.
Levi was born with a cleft of both the hard and soft palate. This means that there is a space all the way from the front of his mouth to the back, much like the following picture. These diagrams are what I believe will happen with the surgery, however, like I mentioned, his procedure may end up being slightly different if his surgeon uses a different technique. (This information was taken from WFU Plastic Surgery )
When the roof of the mouth doesn't grow together properly, the condition is called a cleft palate. To repair it, the surgeon will make an incision along both sides of the cleft.
Tissue is drawn together from both sides of the cleft to rebuild the roof of the mouth. (The areas that the tissue was drawn from will then regenerate itself)
From what I have learned, it sounds like the palate that is formed will be functional, but not as firm as yours or mine. He may have some trouble learning to eat after the procedure, but with guidance from his specialists, we should get the hang of it. Also, since he doesn’t have the proper musculature in the soft palate, he may still have trouble with speech development and forming certain sounds. He will be seen by a speech therapist, who will assess his speech development after the surgery and determine how his new palate is functioning.
Occasionally, there are multiple surgeries required to completely fix the palate, however we are praying that this is not the case for Levi! We hope that this surgery will provide him with a functional palate and that there won’t be any complications or need for any corrections.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for reading!
