hard palate repair separated?

[mookie59]

I posted about Taylor's bad mouth odor. I looked at her mouth closely this morning and the hard palate repair has now separated.

The place where her stitches where in the roof of her mouth now has a gap instead of closure.

What does this mean? He said if it separated he might have to do it over. Does this mean another surgery?

Should I contact the surgeon? He's not supposed to see her again until January.

[samjune79]

my son's opened up too and it was large enough to need another surgery. We will see when he will have it during his next cleft team meeting in Feb.

[mookie59]

Samantha

Can you explain more? Like how far after surgery did it re-open? How long has it been since the surgery? Has his surgeon seen him since it happened?

Is his a hole (like a fistula) or does it look like his cleft is just opening back up?

I know this is going to sound crazy but did/do you ever notice a bad smell coming from his mouth?

Also does food come out of his nose again?

I know it's a lot of ????'s but I'm really concerned about this.

Thanks!

[samjune79]

Jennifer,
I never had a bad smell but he wasn't eating solids at the time of his surgery either. His palate surgery was 3 months ago he was 6 months old and is 9 months old now. He started eating solids at 7 1/2 months. Yes food does come out of his nose but not formula. I saw the PS 15 days after surgery and he still had some stitches left but the PS said that his hole was too big to close up on its own and he would need surgery to close it in a year so I guess that would put him at 18 months. I see the PS in Feb 08 during Team. I hope I answered all your questions. Here are some pictures.

You can't really see the hole in this pic but I think you can see the start of it.



Here is what it looked like before surgery

[mookie59]

Samantha,
Thank you so much! The pictures really helped. I never cease to be amazed at those who can photograph their child's mouth. I can't hardly keep Taylor from fighting me just to let ME see inside hers.

Taylor's looked like the first pic a couple of weeks ago. Her cleft was almost as large as your son's in the second pic.

I called the PS's office today. The nurse talked to me, then talked to him then called me back.

The surgeon said, "this happens sometimes. The food getting into the opening is causing the smell. I'll see her as scheduled in January."

So I guess we will see what he says in January. Man, I hate having the surgery over again.

Thanks again!

[samjune79]

I hate to have another one so soon too. I'd give anything to have him wait until he is 3 to fix the hole. I just don't want to deal with those 'no-nos'. I guess we have to wait for Jan and feb.

[Jeff Alterman]

Sometimes a hole can open up in the palate after it has been surgically closed. When this happens, just keep a watch on it. It will have to closed once again.

samjune79: You should keep a watch on your son's speech development since with a hole in the palate, the speech could sound excessively nasal. However, it does not occur in every case where there is a small hole in the palate after repair. There is some people who have a small hole in their palate and their speech is fine.

Jeff Alterman at alterman156@verizon.net