Hi, Linda,
My son Theo is now 15 years old and he was born with Pierre Robin Syndrome/Sequence (his story is on this site--Theodoros). He had his cleft palate repaired at 3 days old and a trach at 1 month of age. Theo had a unilateral cleft palate in which all of his soft palate was missing and 1/3 of the hard palate was missing. Dr. Magee (co-flounder of Operatiom Smile) performed his surgery and he promotes early repair of clefts. Many children need to be fed using a g-tube, but Theo was able to eat using a cleft bottle after his trach. The palate repair enabled him to eat more normally, but he was not able to breastfeed. I understand how you feel about your baby going into surgery. Theo was just 3 days old when I watched them wheel him into surgery. We were in a children's hospital in VA so there was a lot of support. I was able to speak to another mom with a similar situation. As far as the healing is concerned--the stitches normally dissolve. You should definitely speak to the doctors and nurses to get all the information you can. Thankfully Theo healed quickly from his cleft surgery, but he had trouble eating & breathing at the same time. After his trach he gained weight quickly and his jaw grew the few centimeters he needed. Your little guy looks happy and healthy so I am sure he will do well after the surgery. It helps to have his favorite toys and books and hold him a lot for comfort afterwards. I always tried to not let Theo sense how upset I was or see me cry. If your little one likes books like my Theo always did it helps to read to him in order to distract him from the situation. Pain medicine like Tylenol with codeine was given to Theo when needed. Please e-mail me if you need further help or
reassurance--tesn4@yahoo.com. I pray that all goes well.
Mary Ann