With plastic surgery, makeovers, nips and tucks all the rage, one might think Jena Nordgren would be right in style.
TV shows reveal the beginning and the pretty ending of operations. For Jena, 15, her ongoing makeover brings jeers and stares, hardly the thing a teenager needs to face at a summer festival or the start of school.
The Nordgren family thought they had planned Jena’s three summer months in a protruding face brace. They hoped to avoid the potential emotional trauma of wearing the “halo” when school started again.
But Jena’s surgery, to further correct her cleft lip and palate, had to be redone a few weeks ago. Now she’ll have to wear the brace into fall.
Having two surgeries was bad enough, but now Jena heads to a Lake Stevens school, HomeLink, wearing a contraption screwed to the sides of her head, jutting in front of her face and buried inside her mouth.
It’s not pretty.
What is pretty is the way Alan and Cindy Nordgren and their children support each other.
All three Nordgren children were born with cleft palate or cleft lip. Jena’s brother Kristofor, 17, has cleft lip and partial cleft palate, and younger brother Jordan, 14, has cleft lip. All three face more surgeries.
“Jena seems very together most of the time, but this has been an extremely emotional time for her,” her mother, Cindy Nordgren, said. “She is a very strong and special person, for sure.”
According to the Cleft Palate Foundation, a is a separation of the two sides of the lip. The separation often includes the bones of the upper jaw and upper gum. A is an opening in the roof of the mouth in which the two sides of the palate did not join together as the fetus developed.
The majority of cleft defects appear to be due to a combination of genetics and environmental factors, according to the foundation.
A child born with a cleft condition frequently requires several different types of treatment including surgery, orthodontic care and speech therapy.
“Jena had jaw surgery June 11,” her mother said. “It was a procedure to help grow bone in her jaw. This incredible young woman had to concern herself with how she was going to feed herself through the ordeal, rather than what a normal 15-year-old would be worrying about – hair, makeup or spending time at the lake with friends.”
The Nordgren children are mostly home-schooled, but Jena will attend a Homelink program this fall run by the Lake Stevens School District.
She debuted her temporary look in the rigid external distractor system at the annual Lake Stevens festival, where folks were rubbernecking the contraption.
“People stared at me, trying to figure out what it was,” Jena said. “Go ahead and ask questions. If you don’t ask, you’re scared. Be brave.”
Her mother said too many people stared at Jena.
“If you were someone who made eye contact, or smiled, we appreciated that,” Cindy Nordgren said. “Jena was brave enough to leave the house to try to enjoy some of Aquafest, only to be treated like an oddity.”
To make matters worse, Jena’s puppy is missing.
She is desperate to find Harley, 14 weeks old, about 10 pounds, mostly pug and Chihuahua, with Rottweiler coloring.
Harley was lost around 147th Avenue NE in Lake Stevens. Jena was just about to get him a collar and tag when he went missing.
“It’s been almost five weeks since I’ve seen him,” the teenager said. “I just want him home.”
It’s hard for Jena to sleep, and she is on a liquid diet. The device is screwed into the sides of her head, and she deals with the pain of headaches. Each day, she tightens bolts that jut out from her lip to slowly expand the jawbone.
Her brother Kristofor said he remembers being teased as a child. He said no one wanted to hang out with him.
Now Mr. Popular since his surgeries, Kristofor is on the front line of defending his sister and said his many friends won’t let anyone tease her when they’re around. When Jena complained about her treatment at Aquafest, Kristofor said he was sorry he wasn’t there to defend her.
Cindy Nordgren takes a different approach.
“We’re all about educating people,” she said. “All Jena wants is understanding and acceptance from people who can see her, and not her disability or disfigurement.”
Is everyone listening?
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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