SMILES

I remember not long ago there was someone concerned about seeing a small hole after the palate repair and she even took pictures of it sending it to PS for review. What happened with that issue, was it a hole? My son has his post op appointment on Wed and I think I see a small hole but really not sure what I am looking at.

Sometimes a hole (fistula) will occur in the palate after it has been repaired. The thing to do is to try and close the hole once again. I hope that I was of some help.

Jeff Alterman at alterman156@verizon.net

Samantha, Jackson had a small hole at his first op visit. It was where the hard and soft palate meet. At that time our PS suggested just keeping an eye on it, and on our last visit on August 2nd, it had closed on it's on. He did tell us that if it had not closed on it's own, he probably wouldn't have done anything about it until around age 2. That would give it extra time to close on its own. Dr. Grant said that they usually DO close on their own if they're small. I was SO thankful, because I just don't think I could have handled another surgery at this point. Maybe try and take a picture, and email to the PS. Good luck!
Allison

I have a qn here, how long does it take for the hole to appear after the palate operation. If it has already passed 3 weeks, will a hole still appear?

Kind of worried still though we have managed to struggle for 3 weeks already!

Irene

I think the hole was being covered by the stitches and that's why I didn't notice until week 2. PS said it will have to be repaired when he is 1-2 years old and he said it wouldn't get any bigger but could get smaller. I would say after 3 weeks you are safe.