The doctors have spoken

Well, we traveled to Chicago last week to see the doctors at the Shriners Hospital. Ella did very well traveling. She slept on the flight out and on the way back (yeah!) and she was a trooper through both the airports. Taxi rides weren't too fun, but all in all she did really well. The hotel was neat. It was very old and smelled kind of musty, but neat with it's old fasioned decor. Ella let all the doctors poke and prod her and had smiles and kisses for most of them. The audiologist was a bit amazed that a three year old cooperated so wonderfully in the sound booth. He said most four and five year olds would not have done that. Ella's ears got a clean bill of health! The speech pathologist had some concerns, but liked the things we were working on and the fact that we had already started the process with speech therapy back home. The ENT doc performed a test on Ella that they had never performed on a three year old before. He put a small, long camera scope into Ella's nose and took some video of the back of her throat as we tried to get her to say "yellow yo-yo" three times. (We only got her to say it once.) It told us a lot about what needed to be done (surgically) to help her speech. She did cry some through the procedure, but was such a big girl. Afterwards, the speech pathologist took her to find the private stash of goodies and Ella got to pick a special prize out of a big wagon. Of all the things she could have in that wagon, she found the ONLY doll in there. LOL. It was YELLOW of all things. Ironic.

The verdict after seeing all of those wonderful doctors is that she needs another palate surgery, which we knew. They have decided that the P-Flap Surgery will give her the best chances of clear speech. We have to do some research to see what all that surgery does for her. There are additional surgeries in her future, but this will get her what she needs for now.

Unfortunately, we couldn't even consider the surgery until her immediate dental issue was resolved as it was providing the greatest urgency. We could either go on the waiting list with the Shriners Peds Dentist and wait until July or August or we could try to find a pediatric dentist at home to pull her broken tooth. Luckily the Shriners dentist gave us something that said exactly what needed to be done. When we got home on Thursday, we called Childrens Hospital in Denver and they happen to have a walk-in clinic the following day (instead of waiting for a July appointment). After the peds dentist at Childrens Hospital saw Ella's tooth, he opted to pull it right then and there! I feel so bad for Ella, but at least that nasty tooth is out of there! She hasn't been eating or drinking as much as she usually does and has been very whiney (we can tell when the ibuprofen wears off), but every day is getting better. Now we can focus on her upcoming palate surgery which will probably be in June or July. I'm very nervous about her upcoming surgery. I know it was going to happen, I'm just scared I guess. Not scared for the surgery itself, but scared for her recovery. She is recovering very well from her tooth extraction, but the palate is going to be a tough one. I know she will be strong through it. I hope I will be just as strong.

All in all, Chicago was a pretty good trip. The beds were soft. The food was AWESOME (LOOOOOVE that Chicago style pizza!). Everyone at the Shriners Hospital was amazing. (Ella charmed the pants off of most of them with kisses and hugs!) They were so caring and observant and THOROUGH! It was wonderful. We know now that she will have the best care possible by the best doctors in the industry. It feels better having a game plan.