Jack's surgery

So for most, the New Year brings resolutions, possibilities, hopes and dreams for the coming months. For us, it includes surgery for our oldest son, Jack. It's less than a week away, so it's creeping up fast on us. Here's a little background on it:

Jack was born with a "submucosal cleft palate". What this basically means is that the muscles of the palate did not connect together correctly, so it doesn't block off the opening to the nose while talking like it should. It didn't extend all the way through the roof of his mouth to his lip, though, so it was not an obvious physical sign. When he started preschool, he was evaluated by a speech therapist who suggested he see an ENT (ear, nose, throat doctor). At the time of his eval (he was 4) the dr wanted speech therapy to take him as far as possible before looking at surgery as an option. So this past year, when speech therapy took him no further, we had him seen by several specialists and scheduled his surgery. It will be a 4 hour surgery, where the plastic surgeon will stitch the muscle of his palate together and extend it so it works properly and blocks the nasal airway when speaking. The big challenge will be his diet: he'll be on liquids only for 2 weeks, then a soft diet for another 2 weeks, then for the final 2 weeks he can be on regular food except for crunchy, sharp things like chips or popcorn. 

Jack is handling everything pretty well, and we are not making it our center focus this week. The kids are still on Christmas vacation, so we want him to just enjoy his time off. We invited some family and friends to come out to dinner at one of his favorite restaurants this Friday, I'm working alot this week so I can have the time off next week, and I really don't think it will sink in too much until Tuesday, the day before the surgery. I'm sure everything will go very well (this is a common procedure) but I am anxious for it to be over for him.

I will post updates on his progress in the coming months :)