Update on my son

[Amanda]

Okay, my son Tomek and I are back from the hospital, where we went for his
adenoids to be removed and a new set of ear tubes to be put in. While he was
under, the surgeon came out and recommended that we take his tonsils out
too, they were enormous; this was done.

She also told me that he has a sub-mucous cleft palate. Hmmm. This is the
son with the speech delay; the one the school district wants to classify as
autistic, but who can understand properly, communicates, yanks his sister's
(and mother's) chain, is concerned and goes to fix it when his little
brother's in trouble. He has a great vocabulary--when he's identifying
pictures, you need the aid to understand him--and I personally thought he
was apraxic.

So, there's lotsa speech-y and special-needs-y types on this list--any
experience with this? Have we just found yet another factor that may have
affected his speech development (like his lack of typical symptoms with ear
infections, resulting in undetected fluid therein more often than not--in
fact, there was fluid in both ears today, the surgeon told me).

How can he have been examined by so many speech people, the dentist, the
doctor, etc., and not have this noticed until he's 5 1/2? In their defense,
he does lack the bifurcated uvula.

Rrrr. My poor little hard-luck boy. Everything happens to Tomek.

--Amanda