ryan, bet it feels good to have the surgery in the "rearview mirror" now, huh? congrats
just wanted to add my two cents here--hopefully it'll be helpful in some way. I'm 34 now, I was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, and when i was 15 i had my last (meaning, most recent, and final) repair done. What happened was, and I think this is common, I had my initial repairs as a baby and then the rest of my face grew and the middle of my upper lip didn't grow as much, so there was a bit of a gap--you could kind of see my upper teeth when I closed my mouth. So, at 15 what they did was, they actually took skin from my bottom lip and grafted it to my upper lip, and they also did some work on my nose so it wasn't as wide and flat anymore. These plastic surgeons are miracle workers, I don't know how they did it but they did and it worked really well if i do say so. I was much more pleased with my appearance after the surgery. A lot of people who aren't familiar with clefts (i.e. "the rest of the world") don't even realize i had a cleft until i tell them to look closely at the scars and they have to lean in
I admit, it was different to have surgery at age 15 than it was when I was younger. It was kind of like, "oh, this again, I thought I was done with all these surgeries when I was a kid" but it actually went fine and recovery was quick. My biggest concern was that I had a boyfriend at the time and I had to ask the doctor when I could kiss him again
(it wasn't long
)
Does anyone know, do they still do this type of surgery where they graft the bottom lip to the upper lip? i had this done in 1989, so it was a while ago. I'm pregnant and we found out that my son will be born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, so I'm just curious. Of course by then things will probably have changed a lot more, too
Dan, good luck with your son and keep us posted.