As a kid who was born with a cleft lip and palate, there are many things I have been through. I’ve had spacers, braces, head-gear, upon other things. There are certain moments in particular that I will never forget and looking back make me laugh.

After many/most surgeries I had to use a syringe for food purposes. I remember after one surgery when I was younger, my mom and I had the idea of trying to put jello in the syringe as I couldn’t open my mouth very much. If you are reading this and you are thinking “hey, I’ve never tried that”, there’s probably a reason why. It’s NOT a good idea. The jello shot out of the syringe and onto the ceiling, needless to say we never tried that again. LOL

In fourth or fifth grade I had to get braces, along with that I ended up getting a spacer put up in the roof of my mouth. I was not pleased about the spacer and although I had just gotten it put in, I decided that I wanted a Burger King hamburger. The hamburger was not a good choice as it hurt to eat it, so I decided that if I can’t have the whole hamburger, I would have the pickles on the hamburger. One pickle eaten, two pickles eaten, three pickles….not eaten. The last pickle got stuck in my spacer!! This might not have been a big deal except I couldn’t get the pickle out and we were 45 minutes away from home. I was so upset, I began to cry. My parents tried to calm me down and after a bit I did calm down. I even made up a song, “I gotta pickle, I gotta pickle, I gotta pickle hey hey hey”, you know from the Little Rascals movie where the little boy sings “I gotta dollar, I gotta dollar, I gotta dollar hey hey hey”? What can I say I’m a silly girl.

For those that read this blog and have a cleft or a kid with a cleft, do you have any funny stories to share?

~Rebecca~</~Rebecca~

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