What a LOOOONNNNNGGGGGG day!!!!!!

Ok, let's give the run down. Hang tight.

We went to the Craniofacial department and it was packed (so many kids need help in this area, it's unreal! *kinda sad*). We waited for awhile and our name was called. We got a red folder with a routing slip on it and OFF WE WENT. We had to go all over the hospital to find the folks we needed to see. Thank goodness most of them were on the first floor, but GOODNESS! They may be on the first floor, but do you know how HUGE this hospital is?!?!?! Needless to say, the welcome desk helped us with just about every room we needed to go to. (Thank you Lord for those wonderful ladies!)

First up? Dentistry and Oral Maxio whatever.....(forgot who they were) Anyway, we were taken right in. Poor Matthew, I knew this was going to be a "good" one! He was half alseep when they wanted to "poke" around at his teeth and see what was going on. (oh yeah, side note, momma gave him animal crackers about an hour earlier, NOTE TO SELF, don't do that again because they STICK TO YOUR TEETH/GUMS! *duh*) Needless to say, we were told that Matthew's gums/teeth needed some help and to find a pediatric dentist pretty quickly. (already have one in Hughesville, MD) Matthew's cleft part of his mouth, the teeth are growing in sideways *north to south instead of west to east like us* which is normal for "cleft kids". (cleft kids is NOT a derogatory remark, it's the truth and this is what the team calls folks like Matthew, so if I can get over it, YOU CAN TOO! ;o) We were told there is lots to do but mainly when Matthew gets his adult teeth in. So we have a while before that happens.

Second up? Hearing/Speech. OH BOY! This is where it gets interesting. Matthew had a standard hearing test in a sound proof room with him on my lap and daddy in there too. He heard NOTHING. Daddy heard almost nothing and momma? I heard the lady twice and that was about it. VERY INTERESTING! So, the audiologist decided to give Matthew a pressure test on his ear drums. Right ear? Good. Left? Um, not so good. Okay. Next? Matthew was given a test they do on newborns (because he couldn't grasp the concept of one of the hearing tests). He can hear out of both ears, but they couldn't tell us if there was any hearing loss. Good news, yet, huh? He can hear. Just won't know how much for a while. He'll be evaluated in 6 months again.
SPEECH? The man was really nice. BUT.........Matthew was TIGHT LIPPED and wouldn't say a THING to him! OH mommy was not happy and was afraid of this. Yep, it happened. Nice......the speech dude asked us lots of questions about Matthew and he was graded a fair rating for what we told him Matthew could/couldn't do/say. (will be evaluated again in 6 months)

Third up? ENT.........HA! Matthew was running on NO SLEEP, hardly any lunch (just a hot dog) and mom and dad were SPENT! The ENT told us that Matthew's throat looked good, his nose was ok except for the flattened part of his nose from the cleft, which we know and it will be corrected and his ears? Well, they looked good but we were told that over 80% of cleft kids need tubes in their ears at some point because of the eustationary (sp?) tubes from the ear to the throat are shortened in cleft kids and that fluid builds on the ears alot. (already has with matthew when we got him) Otherwise, come back in 6 months for another evaluation)

So.........then we go back to the Craniofacial dept. and they review what was written down and we see two more docs including the doc we saw in the first place the first time we went to Children's. Dr. Murthy. VERY NICE man! The other dude we saw, forgot his name, told us not to do anything until Matthew is like 7 or 8. Dr. Murthy said NO, not to wait that long because the tissue in Matthew's mouth will become more rigid and less to work with.

Short end of it? We wait to hear from the "team". We should know something in about 30 days. If Dr. Murthy gets his way, (which I'm hoping for), Matthew's fistula and nose, and lip will be repaired/nipped/tucked and NO MORE FOOD OR LIQUIDS will come out of his nose FOREVER!!!!!!!!! YES! Trust me, seeing rice come out of Matt's nose is GROSS enough. *but we're getting use to it* Once this happens, Matthew will have stints on his little arms for a FULL 2 WEEKS, DRINK ALL OF HIS MEALS via the blender!!!! and be a BEAR for 2 solid weeks after surgery! Oh boy! Momma will have fun with him!!! I'm looking forward to it actually! Just so my boy will have normal eating/drinking capacities like you and I.

Ok, this is long enough, so I'll end it now.