The Clinic

My little dude has a genetic condition called Velo Cardio Facial Syndrome which I first mentioned here.

Part of this deal is a sub-mucal cleft palate which is a fancy way of saying his speech is a bit hard to understand, notwithstanding almost three years of speech therapy (and the fact that he's 5 and says crazy arsed stuff anyway).

So yesterday Henry and I spent five hours here:

He saw an audiologist, a specialist speech pathologist, a Ear Nose Throat Surgeon and a Plastic Surgeon who specialises in small people's palate reconstruction.

I saw a coffeeologist which was probably my highlight.

Henry, still obsessed with Disney Pixar Cars, got two new cars to see him through:

He had to have a videofluoroscopy which is this cool real-time xray looking at palate movement and the structure of the mouth. In order to see the pharyngeal walls clearly, they had to inject something called Barium up Henry's nose (about the consistency of thin toothpaste) which he was remarkably tolerant about.