Sorry for the long delay

Here is Eddie at Just Kids - the morning pre-K speech school he attends - in fall 2011.

They tell us he is doing well there, but Eddie still refuses to talk outside the house,

I was not sure that the teachers realized that he can speak in complete sentences, so

I made some videos of Eddie at home at set up a YouTube channel.

http://www.youtube.com/megodoctor

Take the train to the plane

Like most boys, Eddie is fascinated by trains, planes, trucks, construction equipment,
cars, boats, etc. - in short, he is a gear head. Gear heads like the Batmobile more than
Batman. Gear heads are usually big into Star Wars.

A great thing for us to do on a Saturday is to take the Long Island Railroad into the
Jamaica hub and transfer to the AirTrain - a monorail that goes around Kennedy
airport. It costs about $9.00 for an off-peak round trip, and $5.00 for the AirTrain.
It lets him see the airplanes at all the terminals and if we don't exit the monorail,
it returns back to the train station.

As exciting as a trip to Disneyland for under $20.00

Surgery today and it's Eddie's 4th birthday

August 31st - three days after Hurricane Irene hit New York
with less than hurricane force - some people were still without
power, but Eddie's surgery was a go!

Eddie was not allowed to have any food after midnight -
he goes to bed at 9:30, and we weren't going to keep him
up for a midnight buffet - and he could only have 8 ounces
of clear liquid like water or apple juice up to 9:30 am on
the day of the surgery. We were so busy getting out the
door that no one ate or drank anything.

Annie and Eddie were dropped off at Long Island Jewish's
Cohen Children's hospital at 10 am for a 12:30 surgery time.
Then I dropped Gwen off at my sister Joan's house in Floral Park,
about 15 minutes away, since the hospital rules forbid siblings in
the waiting room.

Eddie played with a wooden train set, rode around on some kid
cars, and didn't seem too upset about not eating breakfast.
When he did ask me around 11 for some food, I told him it would
make him sick, so he had to wait until after surgery.

Due to delays in the operating room, he didn't go in until 2pm,
but was unconscious in 15 minutes.

Dr. Gallagher stitched a piece of skin into the roof of his mouth
completely covering the gap in the palate. The procedure took
about 3 hours and by 6pm, we were taken into the recovery
room where Eddie was still asleep.

I left to get Gwen and get home to the dog - who had been
home alone for 10 hours without a walk. Annie had packed a
bag to stay overnight in the room with Eddie.

Eddie woke up around 7:30, washed his mouth out with some
water, drank some apple juice, and went back to sleep.

What this surgery will really do

Eddie visited the plastic surgeon - Dr. Pam Gallagher - before his next surgery
on August 31st (so far) so the doctor could examine him.

Apparently this surgery will be to remove the plastic prothesis covering the
roof of his mouth (except for a small hole where the plastic piece does not
cover. Basically Eddie's mouth has a V opening and the prothesis is oval,
so it covers most of the opening but leaves a small hole where tiny bits of
food and drink get into his nose. It's really fun to watch Eddie eat blue
ice cream!

Replacing the prothesis will be a flap of skin that will cover the entire
opening like a tarp or dropcloth. This should allow Eddie to create
pressure in his mouth so he can form the B and P sounds. And while
the doctor has the hood up, she wants to re-do his right nostril to make
it more symetrical to the left one - now that's what every 4 year old wants
on his birthday - morphine and symetrical nostrils.

Date of surgery changed

Annie's Mothers Day card from Gwen. She wrote it at school and did not show it
to us until the day itself. I think we are doing okay as parents if the 8 year old
can express her feelings like this - but let's see what the teenage years bring.

Father's Day was spent visiting our friends in Virginia - the Jacksons. The girls
all went to the American Girl Doll store while the boys (Chris, Eddie, and I)
took the Metro (subway) to Reagan National airport so Eddie could watch the
planes take off and land. I think Eddie was more impressed by the train ride
and the lights that blink on the platform when the train is approaching.

The date of Eddie's surgery has been moved from August 24th to August 31st -
his 4th birthday. The surgery is to fill in the gap in the roof of his mouth with
a material that will have some elasticity, allowing him to grow for several more
years without a gap in his palate. This should help him in speaking more
complex sounds like "fr" "sch" and many other words.

Part of me will miss "ool us" but he's better off saying "school bus".

Winter into Spring 2011

It has been a few months since I last posted an entry to this blog - partly because winter
is a busy season for the toy business - the major trade show - Toy Fair - is held right
around Valentine's Day in New York City. This means that right after Christmas, we
are in a countdown to Toy Fair - getting prototypes done to show there.

The other reason I have not posted much is that this blog was intended to be not about
the family, but about Eddie's medical issues. Before we adopted Eddie, I searched the
internet for detailed accounts of cleft lip and cleft palate before and afters and could
only find a few pictures. I wanted to know as much as possible about what to expect -
what could he eat, what surgeries he would undergo, etc.

There has been a lot of progress with his speech over the winter and spring months.
The speech school he attends each morning 5 days a week is doing a great job - but
Eddie is not talking to them like he talks to us at home. Below is a link to a YouTube
video I uploaded of Eddie on my shoulders answering some questions. I did it to show
the teachers that he was indeed speaking in complete sentences.

http://www.youtube.com/user/megodoctor

This August - about a week before his 4th birthday - Eddie will be have surgery done
on the actual palate bone, fusing it together. This should improve his speech and
close up the roof of his mouth. I will post more information and details as we get
closer.

Monty - the glowing eye reindeer

We made the dog wear a pair of reindeer antlers. He hated them and pulled them off

right away.

Christmas was great - Eddie got his monorail and is running through a set of AA batteries

a day.