Future Plans

So, since the last update, both Randy and I have been doing as much research as humanly possible to find the best surgeon/cleft team out there. Not at easy as it may seem.... For one thing, every doctor and/or hospital has a different approach. We've found that pretty much anyone can "fix" Isla so that she'll be able to lead a "normal" life...but it's making it look good that's a whole different story. So from an aesthetic point of view, there are only a handful of surgeons to choose from and of course we want Isla to have the best possible surgeon out there.

There are so many different things to decide...NAM or no NAM, Lathem or no Lathem, when to start surgery (one doctor will do surgery as early as 2 weeks of life, while others want to wait all the way until they are 6+ months...and then there is everything in between), nose stents or no nose stents, it goes on and on. But what's to say that one way is better than the the other? I guess it all depends on the individual child as to what route you should go...but unfortunately no one practices everything, so it's up to us as parents to decide the best methods for our children. By FAR the hardest decision  and one the most important decisions that we are going to make for Isla's life. After all...the first surgery is going to set the  precedence for the rest of her life, and we are hoping to make the right decision that will actually minimize the possibilities for future surgeries.

We've spoken with doctors all across the nation and have narrowed it down to two local(ish) hospitals. Either Rady's in San Diego, or Children's LA. We still have yet to meet with them in person, but this will come within the next few weeks, so hopefully we'll have a decision by August as to where we will be spending the majority of our first year. But I'm very confident in the two surgeons that we will be meeting with (along with their cleft teams)...their work is absolutely amazing and by the time these children are one year old, the only way you can tell that they were born with a cleft is because you are looking for it. Otherwise, you would never know.

Whichever decision we make...we know it will be the right one, and we'll explain why we made that decision once it's made. The one thing that we do know is that Isla's first year is going to be very challenging and as most of you know, Randy and I were planning on getting married in May of next year. With all the surgeries and unknowns that we are going to face throughout the year, we've decided to cancel our wedding and put all of our focus on our new little addition and our growing family. We are still going to be getting married, just no wedding. We're not sure of the exact date, but we're actually planning on doing it before Isla get's here :) SOO EXCITING. So stay tuned for the date, because we are going to be having a celebratory dinner/BBQ for all those that would like to be a part of our special day.