2012 Weekly Recaps (10 of 52)

Still catching up on weekly recaps . . .

This weekend started with a breakfast with friends.  Good food, fellowship, coffee, and green juice from Trader Joes (thanks Denessa!)  Madelyn wore the new Star Wars shirt that she received for her birthday from Auntie Ning Ning and Uncle Dew.  Madelyn likes to refer to her clothes according to important events in her life, so she now calls the shirt the one that she wears “to have breakfast with Ainsley!”  (My other favorite descriptor for her outfits is “the one where I had a cookie and cried.”  It’s a long story.)
Madelyn and Ainsley got to practice their sharing skills.  Madelyn wanted Ainsley’s hairband.  Ainsley wanted Madelyn’s shoes.  It all turned out okay in the end.

They did happily take a break from sharing toys to share some story time.

After breakfast, we did a few a lot of errands.  Madelyn managed to accessorize herself everywhere we went.  First was the glittery cat mask.

Alas, it was a bit pricey for a glitter cat mask, so it didn’t come home.  The next item, however, definitely came home.  At Old Navy, they had a bin of children’s sunglasses out at child level.  (Smart, Old Navy.  Smart.)  Madelyn HAD to try all of them on.

She has been rocking them ever since.

Madelyn also got to have a cleft check-up at Doernbecher.  Unfortunately, both speech therapists were out sick, so we had to re-schedule that component.  The surgeon was pleased, however, with the development of Madelyn’s speech.  Although the surgeon will ultimately defer to the evaluation of the speech therapist, she does not feel that it is likely that Madelyn will need a speech-related repair at age 4 to 5.  The next surgical repair, therefore, will probably be the gumline around age 8 (orthodontic work will begin around age 7).

Unlike our last few visits, Madelyn actually sat through the entire hearing check.  For the first test, they gave her a set of headphones and a plastic cookie jar with plastic cookies.  They explained that they were going to play a game and asked her to drop a cookie in the jar every time she heard a sound in the headphones.  The audiologist noted that Madelyn did not hear some of the low sounds and described her as having “slight hearing loss.”  Follow-up tests revealed that Madelyn’s nerves are functioning and that the hearing loss is due to fluid build-up.  This is very common with cleft - even after a palate repair.  Madelyn did have tubes put in at the time of her lip repair, but they have since fallen out.  It is very possible that we will need to re-insert tubes, but Doernbecher wants to wait a few months and re-test because Madelyn had a cold, which could also be the cause of the fluid build-up.

Madelyn was an excellent patient for the day.  What a difference six months makes in a little one’s ability to sit still and follow instructions from a doctor (open your mouth please, turn your head please, etc.)  Of course it helps that Doernbecher provides lots of entertainment for its little patients.  There was a visit from the U of O Duck.

There were bubbles.

Lots of bubbles.

And, of course, Mommy and Daddy treated Madelyn to ice cream after all of the appointments.  We were very proud of our little patient!

- Tricia Olson, 2012

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Labels: weekly recaps