Our little love Simran went home this morning. I could not believe the outcome of her surgery, the transformation was remarkable.
Surgeries, surgeries, surgeries! Today, day 3 of operating, we had 11 surgeries. Out of those 7 were cleft lips and palates.
Our dentist, Aaron, has also been very busy. He has extracted 25 teeth in the last three days. He also has a mini laboratory where he is building obturators (which block holes in the palate). He is also making dentures and a fake middle tooth to bridge a gap.
Aaron removing a tooth.
Carolyn, the speech pathologist, visits every patient after surgery to review guidelines for feeding, giving recommendations for how they can eat to preserve the surgery. Depending upon what the problem is, she provides education about what they can do to make speech better, particularly with children that have had palate surgery. On this particular trip, she and the dentist decided on clinic day that oral care was lacking. Since she sees every patient after surgery, she has been teaching good oral care practices and has given out one toothbrush not per patient, but per family member.
Carolyn doing a follow up with a patient with a cleft palate (he was such a little gentleman. he shook hands with everyone as he was leaving :-))
Tomorrow is our first day off and we will be going to Rangamati in the Hill Tracts. We will take a boat tour of the lake and enjoy local food and crafts. A well-deserved day off!