Hello, 9 months ago I became a mother to a beautiful daughter name Azalea. She was born with ABS which resulted in cleft lip/palate and right eye missing globe. I have been researching every web site that have been available and still cannot believe how a lot of woman as myself and lately others have not been informed about this syndrome in every parent magazine they inform us about all other disorders except this one. I find that I have been educating women that I encounter about my baby’s defect and they are as shocked as I. My daughter recently had her first, of many to come, surgery to repair her cleft lip and release the band on her left hand.
It has become nice to know that even though our children have endured so much in their beginning of their tiny little lives that they are so happy and i was blaming myself at first but I love my little Butttenz as I call her and she is such a joy. She is always smiling
Update on Azalea’s progress.
She is now 14 months old and she has gone through several surgeries to reconstruct what the powers have be have done. On 8/6/08 she had the cleft lip repaired and release of the left hand band and on 9/08 she had the mickey button removed but due to it not closing had to get it surgically closed. 1/28/09 she had the cleft palate not completed repaired due to the surgeons realizing that the cleft went to both eyes. Then she had the reconstruction of the left lip. Azalea has been a champ throughout all the pain, the tubes put in her ears, getting her first ear infections and now she began to walk independently with the help of all her physical, speech, OT, and CT therapists. They are a true blessing to have them. I still have to deal with some ignorant and uneducated as well as sympathetic people as well as some brutal honesty from a lot of women. Buttenz is my strength and blessing I would not change her. I sometimes missed the old her before the surgeries.
