When you’re over a week overdue, the last place you think you’re going to spend the next 47 days is the NICU…but sometimes that isn’t the case.

I still remember the nurses and my OB leaning over the operation table to tell me Samantha had a cleft palate and that she wasn’t breathing well. I remember feeling very overwhelmed and confused. The only thing I knew about clefts was those promotional ads you see on TV around Christmas time for Operation Smile. They had just held my daughter up over the c-section drape and she looked normal…so what was the issue?

It would be another 2 days before I would come across the term “Pierre Robin” and another 2 weeks (and several tests later) before I found myself deciding whether I preferred to have my daughter’s jaw “distracted” by several screws and wires or sew her tongue to her bottom lip. All of this was in effort to get her to feed normally without exhaustion from her bottle and lay on her back without turning blue.

We chose the tongue lip adhesion with Dr Kirschner and we never looked back. My daughter could breathe easily now and within a few weeks was chugging bottles like a champ…all while keeping that tiny chin exactly the way as it was. 🙂 Her tongue was detached when she was 7 months old.

Pierre Robin isn’t something many persons have heard of. Whenever new persons ask about Sammy’s health journey, I normally have to start from the beginning and give them the whole explanation. I don’t mind – It’s a way to get the word out of the PRS community. Plus – I love to see the reactions people give when you tell them we had our daughter’s tongue sewed to her lip for the first 7 months of her life!

Sammy is now over a year old and just had her cleft palate repaired in July 2018. We’re looking forward to sipping straws, saying Daddy for the first time, and continue watching our energetic, charismatic daughter charm her way into everyone’s hearts just as she did from day one. Even after major oral surgery, Sammy could be seen parading down the halls flirting with the boys and entrancing the girls. She’s definitely one of a kind and seems to be a favorite among her doctors and nurses.

https://flutter.nationwidechildrens.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/9562-58_mr.jpg

• Name: Samantha S.Samantha Sobnosky
• Condition(s): Cleft Palate, Micrognathia, Pierre Robin Syndrome
• Age at Treatment: 0 days
• Age Today: 05/24/20176 Years

When you’re over a week overdue, the last place you think you’re going to spend the next 47 days is the NICU…but sometimes that isn’t the case.

I still remember the nurses and my OB leaning over the operation table to tell me Samantha had a cleft palate and that she wasn’t breathing well. I remember feeling very overwhelmed and confused. The only thing I knew about clefts was those promotional ads you see on TV around Christmas time for Operation Smile. They had just held my daughter up over the c-section drape and she looked normal…so what was the issue?

It would be another 2 days before I would come across the term “Pierre Robin” and another 2 weeks (and several tests later) before I found myself deciding whether I preferred to have my daughter’s jaw “distracted” by several screws and wires or sew her tongue to her bottom lip. All of this was in effort to get her to feed normally without exhaustion from her bottle and lay on her back without turning blue.

We chose the tongue lip adhesion with Dr Kirschner and we never looked back. My daughter could breathe easily now and within a few weeks was chugging bottles like a champ…all while keeping that tiny chin exactly the way as it was. 🙂 Her tongue was detached when she was 7 months old.

Pierre Robin isn’t something many persons have heard of. Whenever new persons ask about Sammy’s health journey, I normally have to start from the beginning and give them the whole explanation. I don’t mind – It’s a way to get the word out of the PRS community. Plus – I love to see the reactions people give when you tell them we had our daughter’s tongue sewed to her lip for the first 7 months of her life!

Sammy is now over a year old and just had her cleft palate repaired in July 2018. We’re looking forward to sipping straws, saying Daddy for the first time, and continue watching our energetic, charismatic daughter charm her way into everyone’s hearts just as she did from day one. Even after major oral surgery, Sammy could be seen parading down the halls flirting with the boys and entrancing the girls. She’s definitely one of a kind and seems to be a favorite among her doctors and nurses.