Sorry I've been so quiet lately, I've been meaning to post, but just haven't gotten myself together to do it. I've been healing well and progressing well so all of that is good. I'm not in any real pain. Occasionally, I feel a little sore in the cheeks after expanding, but that's more of an uncomfortable feeling then a pain feeling and it only lasts a little while. I have encountered two problems though... If you don't like gross stuff, don't read past here.
If you look back to months ago where I posted photos of my mouth you can see a light line in the roof of my mouth. That is where my cleft palate was pulled together, closing the hole that was in the roof of my mouth. Think of it as the roof palate being made of two pieces that were pushed together, the crease could always allow liquids to pass through, but it was so tightly fit that it rarely happened. Well what the palate expander is doing is pushing those two pieces of palate apart. Now all those liquids can EASILY (especially if my head isn't upright) pass through to my nose. Food hasn't been a problem though. The good news is that my eating is going better, I'm not back to steaks yet but I'm eating nearly as much food as I was in the past at a meal. It's still softer foods, but it's getting easier to find foods to eat on a menu and I'm not stuck eating the same foods for every meal.
The other problem is with my speech. I'm losing a lot of air through my nose and sound very nasally. I'm having trouble enunciating some sounds, it's very frustrating. To make it even worse I have a tendency to talk fast, which makes me even harder to understand.
Dr. S had mentioned there was the possibility of a retainer type of thing that could be made to help, and I think I need that, A LOT. But it looks like Dr. F will have to make it and I suspect when he makes this it will include a tooth (where the large gap has formed.) I'll ask about that next week when I go to Dr. F for my last expansion on March 17.
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