A Day at the Doctor's

Tuesday, we spent all day at the doctor's office. More specifically, we were at King's Daughter's Children's Hospital(KDCH), where DJ's cleft palate team meets. DJ was born with a unilateral cleft palate and has regular trips for "team" visits. DJ was considered a "special needs" child because of his cleft palate. That is one the main reason we were able to adopt a boy out of China.

Cleft palate team visits consist of meeting with his plastic surgeon, Dr. McGee (The founder and head of Operation Smile), an orthodontist, an ENT Doctor, and a speech therapist. They take a look at his progress charts and examine him (separately) and meet to compare notes on what they think the next steps are. DJ has had five surgeries over the course of being with us, so far. We don't expect to have another one until he is about 11-12.

We have been thoroughly blessed to be a part of this team. They are all highly experienced and highly sought after for their skills. And they are all very nice people , very professional and very friendly. Driving the 1 1/2 hours from the Outer Banks (OBX) to KDCH in Norfolk VA, and then dealing with the extended waits between doctors is nerve racking enough, so it's nice to have doctors with great "bedside manners". BTW, Norfolk is pronounced "naufick" here.

We arrived at about 9:30 and left at 3:00. What a day! Everything is going well with DJ, except he has one baby tooth with an abscess that needs to be pulled. Pam is taking him to his orthodontist this morning for a consultation before the dentist pulls the tooth. With the cleft palate in the mix our orthodontist and dentist must always communicate before either of them does anything for DJ.

We brought all the kids with us to Norfolk because we figured they'd want the change of scenery an want to stop to shop a bit before we went home. During the summer we rarely ever leave The Beach because the tourist traffic on the weekends is insane. I have seen the traffic bumper to bumper, parking lot for 10-12 miles! I know this because I was stupid enough to leave the beach on a Saturday and come back during the evening "rush".



Well Hi Ho Hi Ho! It's off to work I go!