Our youngest has had a bunch of medical procedures in his short life. You can read about some of them in the Doctors catergory. One of them affects his speech. There is actually a video of him at the doctors here. (If you don’t like medical procedures or have a weak stomach you may not want to watch the whole video.) Velopharyngeal Insufficiency (VPI) is a failure of the body’s ability to temporarily close the communication between the nasal cavity and the mouth, because of an anatomic dysfunction of the soft palate or of the lateral or posterior wall of the pharynx. In layman’s terms when he says certain words he talks very nasally. The air and salvia come up when they aren’t supposed to. The note below is what the doctor (cleft palate plastic surgeon) injected, where it was injected and what our son has.
It was a relief to find out what was going on.
Here he is with the super kind nurse prepping him for his video and nasendoscopy. He did so well with it all. The doctor and nurse were excellent as well. Note: the tissue coming out of The General’s sock is his shin guard. He was pretending to be a baseball player.
Hubby, on the other hand, could not watch. After finding out that the General had VPI we scheduled the injection. Now, this was out of town and required an overnight stay. While The General loved the doctor he wasn’t having it when they called us back. When we were told to dress him in the little gown, etc. he lost it. We had to make things fun. It took him a very long time to get fully undressed and then dressed for the procedure.
Having a hospital, medical staff that has worked with children and makes everything less scary makes all of the difference. One sweet nurse brought in a little laptop and even found the exact movie he asked for!! So grateful for small gestures.
So with Teddy (a gift from the hospital) by his side and movie playing, he finally settled in for the long wait.
One other BRILLANT idea that every child should get is there “sleepy” medicine in liquid form! I love this place! We have had too many other places inject all of the meds through I.V. Nobody likes those, especially little kids.
Poor guy started to hallucinate from the meds…this fish on the wall were jumping out at us, the curtain was going to fall on Dad, etc.
He took many photos like this with my phone and this is probably just how things looked for him.
The procedure…well, it didn’t work. Next step, actual surgery. We meet with the doctor again and go over questions we have concerning the operation and see if we even want to go through it. There’s a lot to weigh out. Without it or a miracle (which we fully believe in and are praying for), he will always talk this way. But depending on the answers to our questions is this something we want to put our son through.
If you have ever had to make a hard medical decision for your kid or kids you know the depth of our emotions, our questions, and our choices.
As an adoptive mom, when health, cognitive, and or behavioral issues come up it is hard not to blame the birth parents. Some of the issues are obviously due to the bio parents others there’s no telling. As a mama, many times it takes getting on my knees to cool the mama bear in me, pull back by claws of bitterness, and anger, and give my kids and their issues to God. For He is the ultimate doctor, teacher, and counselor.
They Call Me Mom 