Hoping you can send some positive energy to an 11 year-old midwestern boy named Tyler. He's scheduled to have another cleft lip/palate surgery this Thursday, June 18.Bilateral clefts experience extra pain.According to his brave and resourceful mom who wrote me a heartfelt note* the other day, Tyler's had it tough of late. He feels like an outcast because bullies lay into him and call him names. As a bilateral cleft born with gaps to the left and right of the midline, I'd warrant a guess that … [Read more...]
Block face recognition, make yourself digitally invisible.
Cleft kids often want to hide their faces. That's why they often love Halloween with its permission to hide behind masks. Adult clefts such as myself —and everyone else, for that matter— may soon be in the same boat as cleft kids. There may be occasions, and lots of 'em, when we want to block Big Brother, the NSA, or others from surveilling us.For this reason, I'm quoting—in its entirety—a recent Raw Story article by Janet Burns, AlterNet which is even more apropo now that the US Congress is … [Read more...]
Hollywood’s beauty ideal changes, but symmetry’s always king
What sort of female faces has Hollywood pushed since its early days? What was done to these faces in lieu of today's photoshopping with respect to makeup, eyebrow shaping, and hair (you know, big hair vs curly hair vs bobbed hair). And what kind of bodies went with these faces: thin, curvy, tall and leggy, etc? Enduring symmetry. No matter what beauty ideal Hollywood promoted, symmetry's always been king. Sophia Loren—1960s idealAs Bustle writer JR Thorpe, tells it:'The history of Western … [Read more...]
Hear no, Speak no, See no? Important month and week for cleft lip kids and others.
May is Better Hearing and Speech month in America. At one end of the age spectrum, this is important for cleft lip/palate kids for whom their early surgeries are just the beginning of their struggle to look and sound 'normal.'Seniors as well as Cleft lip kids.At the other end of the age spectrum, many Boomers and Seniors are facing increasing hearing deficits from natural aging, speech issues from strokes and TIAs, etc. Speech Language Professionals are being minted in huge numbers these days to … [Read more...]
Can “tents” make cleft lip kids symmetrical?
Photos below not for the faint at heart. Proceed with caution.What do the "tent" images below have to do with fixing nasal defects caused by most cleft lip/palate deformities? Well, the answer is several paragraphs further on.But first, let's give credit to Intech,* a provider of free medical knowledge and research. Their goal is to give researchers around the world equal opportunity to share ideas, develop their career. Intech* brought the following article to my attention, which I'm … [Read more...]
Cleft lip kids pay a big price in Vietnam.
I've benefitted from the Vietnam War. Because western doctors operated on innumerable cleft lip and palate kids during and after the war, they learned how to deal with the cartilage of the cleft nose. (More about this in my next blog.) In my 40s, I had my final cleft surgeries . . . on my "smushed down" nostril it turns out, in a bid to become a bit more facially symmetrical. The first surgery: Fail, big time. Even with a temporary stent in the nostril to keep the cartilage from reverting … [Read more...]
Yale to showcase Cleft Heart
I'm excited to announce that Yale University will exhibit Cleft Heart: Chasing Normal in Sterling Memorial Library. The book will be featured in the Memorabilia Room of the library starting May 28, 2015. The exhibit will run through the summer into September. Sterling Memorial Library and Cleft Heart. The library is a fitting location for an exhibition since five chapters of the book deal with my life in Trumbull College, the residence hall that abuts Sterling. The exhibit represents a … [Read more...]