Calvin Update

(Calvin & me before leaving Steph's for our full day!)

And...we're back. It was a long day yesterday at Shriner's Hospital but as always, it was a pleasure interacting with everyone. We feel incredibly blessed to be a part of such a great cranio-facial team (if you are new to our blog, Calvin was born with a cleft lip and palate)! Calvin was recognized a couple of times from their promotional brochure which was cute - I don't think he even remembers that he was featured.

We travelled to stay at my sister's house the night before. We weren't there very long at all but we really enjoyed seeing her new place, visiting until too late, and it put us an hour closer. We left her place at 6 in the morning and I navigated our way into Chicago - I pretty much HATE driving in Chicago.

Calvin's appointment started at 8 and we finished around 3:30. He saw many, many doctors and professionals. His developmental assessment went very well, all of the doctors are thrilled with how great his lip looks, and he charmed the speech pathologist. He passed his hearing test which was shocking to me - I think he has started some bad habits of selective hearing! :) His tubes are out but the holes in his ear drum have not healed yet. We will return in 4 months and have another audiology test and visit the ENT to determine if tubes will be required. They recommend we increase his speech therapy if we can and are working with us to get our insurance to cover more. No surgery is planned for now and we will return for a full team appointment in about a year. We anticipate another big surgery in 2-4 years.

All in all, a good report. I'm always overwhelmed with how kind, understanding, and knowlegeable everyone is at the end of these clinic days . I find myself choking back tears of gratitude. We have many more years of surgery, dental work, and follow-up and we are so thankful for this amazing hospital.

We ended our day with a stop at my grandparents house. They were so gracious to let us come with pretty much no notice. Calvin woke up enough when we got home to tell Andrew about visiting with them. Definitely a highlight of our whirlwind trip.

So there you have it, we are back...to our hotel. :) The other good news is that we are hopefully going to be home sometime mid-late next week. We can't wait!!!