Wednesday, March 18, 2009

In One Ear Out the Other

Well, no chance of that here. I explained to him before surgery that his ears would now match, no ear holes. Want to know what he said "is it hard for fish to swim?" (don't think he cares about that yet!) His unusual anatomy increases his chances for facial paralysis during the ci surgery (been there done that!) so his doctors have to go in at a different angle meaning ear drum removal, canal removal and sewing the ear shut. Here you'll see him bracing for pain right before I put his cream on the incisions (but it didn't hurt like he thought it would). His head is swollen on the left side (the one where his old ci resided) and not at all swollen on the new ear! The little ear is a little displaced but hopefully it will all go back once he's healed. He's getting around very well this morning, no dizziness to note.
One thing to mention...the doc thought there may have been a small amount of facial weakness on the new side (rt side where he had that 'weakness' before) but it turned out to be fine. Another thing is that when they do ear closures these days ( our doc has done four, two belong to my child) there is a chance that a cyst may form inside and get really infected if not removed. So he'll need a CT scan at 6 mos out and 18 mos out to make sure he doesn't develop this cyst which would need to be removed if it forms. This is not what happened to his left side over the past few months even though it was sewn shut and did get infected-different infection here. Okay, I do have more but the Teacher of the Deaf is coming out soon and my house is a wreck!

7 comments:

leah said...

Thank goodness there is no facial paralysis this time around! And I'll pray for no cysts to form so that everything is healed up for once and for all.

Jennifer said...

He looks fabulous! I am so glad it went well. Congrats on being BILATERAL!! Can't wait to see how he does at activation on April 7th!

Anonymous said...

Thank God everything went ok with him. He's an adorable kid and I hope he will get well soon. Actulaly my daughter who's 18 months had her first cochlear implant just ten days ago. But I wonder for how long should we clean her wound and apply the ointment they gave us at the hospital? Any clue Val?

VBnBama said...

I'll probably do it until our post op visit next week. Usually by that time they say you can wash the hair if the incision looks good, but I'll likely do it a week unless the doc decides it needs it longer.

Prince Andrew and the Queen Mum said...

i am so excited for gage..but two comments...1) you really clean your house for the TOD? and 2) you are making him work right now LOL. i'm such a softie

Loudest Mom said...

So glad to hear it went well! And, very interesting- thanks for sharing Val....

VBnBama said...

actually I only pick up a little when she comes and no he's on vacation right now...he'll start back next week, she was only picking up work he did prior to his surgery and she wanted to check on him. I am letting him have the full week off (even if it's killin' me, lol) he's done almost all the work anyway for this 6 weeks.