Ava's pre-op appointment

Ava had her pre-op doctor's appointment today in DC. Pat wanted to come but wasn't sure he should leave work since he's been off a couple of days. When I called him on the way, he said to swing by and pick him up 'cause he wanted to go. He knows DC like the back of his hand so I love that he can get away because I would get lost without him. Traffic was a bear since it was freezing rain, and by the time we got to the hospital, it was her appointment time. I jumped out with Ava and Pat and Olivia parked the car. Wouldn't you know it, we were coming out of the appointment when he and Olivia finally were able to get in the office. So he got nothing....he took his time off essentially to drive me to Ava's appointment! Sweet for me and bummer for him.

While I was in the waiting room (it took P & O a loooong time to find parking), I saw another mom with a China baby boy with a cleft. She looked familiar so I asked her if she had gone to one of the cleft clinics and she said, "yes, in late September." OMG, that's when we were there! So we had met her and her family there. He was one week post-op for his lip repair. Dr. Baker had done his palate late last year. He looked fantastic and she said his palate repair went very well. I just hope we will be able to say the same for Ava.

Dr. Baker still really likes the lip/gum line repair he did. He said her lip will continue to loosen down and the scar fade. He doesn't think she will have any worse a recovery with her palate than she did with her lip/gum line surgery (which was pretty bad). Her surgery was so extensive and painful that he thinks she will do fine with this one, we'll see. After that she shouldn't need any more surgeries for a few years when she will probably need bone implanted in the front to anchor her permanent teeth. When I asked him about too short palate, etc., (would really affect her ability to speak) he said there is about a 10% chance that she could need another procedure, but it depends a lot on her physiology. Pray pray pray that all works well. Well, that's it for now.