Chicago Update

We had a great trip to the Shriner's Hospital in Chicago on Wednesday and Thursday. We were very impressed with the hospital and the staff. There were about 9 other families also being seen - it was baby day so all the kids were under 5 and most were 3 or younger. We enjoyed meeting a couple of other adoptive families - one family was from IL and had three biological sons, were foster parents, and then adopted their beautiful little girl from China, they are hoping to adopt another child soon. All of the children were at various phases in their treatment - Calvin was the only child with an unrepaired lip. Most of the children were boys but there were a few girls. The families came from all over.

Calvin was so good for the many hours of appointments and waiting (we arrived at 8a.m. and left at 3p.m.). He was very friendly and made some new friends - I don't think any of you will be surprised to hear this. :) He saw a few nurses, nurse practioner, ENT, plastic surgeon, social worker, speech pathologist, psychologist, and audiologist.

We were thrilled that they decided to repair the palate and lip together in one surgery (instead of the two we were always told). He will also have ear tubes placed during that surgery due to fluid in his ears. He will be in surgery for 3-4 hours and spend the 1st night after surgery in the PICU. It will be a difficult 10 day recovery with arm restraints and syringe feeding. They required that Calvin have respiratory clearance before scheduling surgery but hopefully we will have a date by the end of this week - it will probably be quite soon since Calvin is high priority.

We are so thankful for their recognizing the issues with him getting older - we felt that our previous hospital did not take into acount his age and speech development. We have recently learned that we are not the only family that has been disappointed in this local hospital's cranio-facial department and the Shriner's speech pathologist was also aware of some of the problems.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers - we will keep you updated!