January

I won't know what it is like when I don't have to see a healthcare worker everyday.  This week we went to see Tripp's plastic surgeon.  He said that he is looking really good, and actually contemplated fixing his cleft at the time he takes his distractors out, but then I was telling him what the ENT wanted to do at the same time and he changed his mind.  He is going to be talking to the ENT to decide for sure what he will do then but so far in about a month he will be taking out his distractors and undoing his tongue.  We will just have to stay overnight for this surgery- it is usually out patient but he wants to monitor us over night since we live so far away.

We saw both his physical therapist and speech therapist this week, and that went good. They are both really happy with Tripp's efforts even though we still have some work to do with both.  Also our speech therapist asked if her supervisor could talk about Tripp's case in an upcoming class she is going to have. I'm excited about this just because the more health care workers in Roanoke that know about the procedures Tripp has had means maybe saving another baby in this area from a trach!

Tripp's hearing aids have been coming out of his ears really easily, so we went yesterday to have new ear pieces fit.  Even though he kept pointing to the pink sparkly one I chose orange and blue for him :)

Lastly today we went to pick up his thumb splints and his shoe inserts.  The thumb splints are to help hold his thumb out because he usually keeps it across his palm all of the time.  Then the shoe inserts are because he likes to constantly keep his toes clenched pretty tight, these should help him keep his toes flat.

Next week we have a follow up appointment with the geneticist and speech therapy--hopefully it stays this way with only 2 appointments! Overall though Tripp is doing pretty awesome!