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Cohen

Cohen was born on November 23, 1999 with a unilateral cleft lip and bilateral cleft palate. Cohen's pictures are presented to you by his parents, Tracey & Paul.

This was Cohen at 2 months, brother to Caeden also here in the gallery. We had an obturator built for him but he refused to eat with it in! He loves to cuddle is an absolute joy!"

 

This is our handsome guy's wide smile!! Isn't he a doll!

Cohen a few hours after surgery. The poor guy had his "lip adhesion", ear tubes and was circumcised all at the same time! Our surgeon is going to do his lip in two stages, so he will have his "lip repair" at 9 months along with his palate.

This picture was taken only two days post-op, doesn't he look great! He had hardly any swelling, is eating well, and is sleeping through the night again!

Our sweet baby boy, two weeks post-op. He is doing great but misses his pacifier ! He doesn't mind the arm restraints, and besides the adhesion coming apart a little at the very top (which isn't a problem) he hasn't had any complications.

This is Cohen with his sisters, Reilly (4), Saeda (1) and big brother, Caeden who was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate.

This is Cohen the day after palate and lip repair. His surgeon did his lip repair in two stages so this final one was at the same time as the palate repair. He had a horrible time in recovery and started to bleed uncontrollably. I knew it was taking them longer to take us back into the recovery area since this was our 6th operation. When we finally got to see him there was blood everywhere and he was on his stomach. He had a hard time breathing for about 12 hours. It was very scary. He also didn't want to eat and got dehydrated. It took about 2 weeks for him to eat and drink normally. This was by far the hardest surgery we have been though.

This is Cohen at 18 months. He is the happiest, sweetest and most charming little man I know. He was diagnosed in March of 2001 with a Rathke's Cleft Cyst which is a type of benign pituitary tumor. He had not grown from August 2000 to March of 2001. It is related to his cleft lip and palate but is extremely rare. He is on thyroid medication and will most likely have to start growth hormone injections. Despite all that he is a very normal and awesome little guy. He has the best smile and even some doctors don't notice his cleft lip. By the way the nickname "PUFF" is still with him after all the COCOA Puffs everyone ate for his last surgery!

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