by Mommy
Riley is now 13 months old (3 months after palate and hand surgery). She is doing extremely well and growing like a weed. Riley took her first couple of steps around her birthday and is now walking all over the place.
Riley�s palate surgery was a success, though her follow-up visit showed that her uvula (the thing that hangs down in the back of the throat) separated. Her surgeon is not concerned about it and said that it did not need to be repaired. After surgery, if Riley ate anything with a sauce such as pasta or soup, sometimes the liquid would come out of her nose. Her surgeon said that there is no separation in her palate; she just hadn�t learned to use her new palate yet. Riley is doing better with it now.
Riley�s hand surgery was also a success. She is using her right hand very well. She can spread her fingers apart a lot farther now, allowing her to pickup objects, like balls and toys, that she couldn�t pickup with that hand before.
The day after surgery, Riley cut her first two teeth, the two front bottom ones. Poor baby, not only was she in pain from her palate surgery, hand surgery and skin graft from her groin area, but her gums as well. A week later, she cut two more teeth, both of her eyeteeth. Her left eyetooth is at her cleft site. As we expected, it is deformed and it came in behind her gum line so you can�t see it. It is also loose because there is not much bone to hold on to. Her orthodontist wants to leave it as long as possible, as long as it is not causing her any discomfort. If he were to pull it, the bone that is there may dissolve, meaning a larger bone graft later. So Mommy is just keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn�t come out.
Riley had her first speech therapy session on January 9, 2003. Her home teacher and speech therapist said that Riley does not have any speech or developmental delays. The only reason they are there is because Riley is �at risk� for delays due to her cleft palate, Amniotic Band Syndrome and Absent Corpus Callosum (ACC). Riley�s next speech therapy session is February 14. If her home teacher and speech therapy think it would be best for Riley to have speech therapy more than once a month, we will enroll her in a class. Otherwise, Riley will see her teacher and speech therapy once a month or if Riley does not need any assistance, her teacher and speech therapist will return in three months. We are so very proud of how wonderfully Riley is growing and learning.
Riley is a very happy and playful little girl. She is very strong willed and an absolute joy. We are extremely blessed to have her as our daughter and we couldn�t be more proud of her.