A cleft palate is when the roof of the mouth is not closed completely and there is a hole. Now the hole can be small or the hole can be large. The palate backs up to the nasal cavity, which drains into the ear canal. Any food or drink that go through the hole can end up in the ears and may have trouble draining. This in turn will cause an ear infection. This is why tubes are not uncommon with children with clefts. Our son had a large hole in his palate. The soft portion was closed, but that is at the back of the mouth. The hard palate was very much open still and would be repaired that summer. He had three ear infections since before his first surgery and they were pretty painful. The ENT and the plastic surgeon planned to do the two surgeries together that following month (March), but the third ear infection caused the ENT to schedule a sudden tube surgery. His serious ear infections resulted in him needing tubes ASAP. It could not wait another month.
He had surgery February 10, 2015. Compared to the last surgery, it was a piece of cake. They did not even give us a beeper and put us in the doctor and family room right away. The doctor came in 10 minuets later and he was in recovery. We could go home once he woke up. His ear infections disappeared and he was much happier!
This is a shorter post because it was such a quick surgery! My next post will be about surgery #3- the second stage of his lip repair.
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