The Results Are In...It's a Potato

Sheesh. Eva and her nonsense blog titles. 

Look at all that shameless sensationalism just to get people's attention! 

That's terrible! 

Who would fall for that? 

Soooo...how ya been.... 

Yep. Just went there. 

No shame in this game. 

Ok. Done for now. 

Yes, welcome to the nonsense drivel I like to call home. 

Is she gonna keep talking in 3rd person?!?

I feel like a poor man's Jim Gaffigan impression. 

Now that you're here, I may as well give you an update on Zane! :) 

Little man and I trekked up to our home-away-from-home today for his 10 day post-op visit. I'm fading fast tonight so I'll be short and to the point (which I realize is ridiculous, given my opening paragraph...) Dr. Owen cut all of the stitches that were anchoring the pink molds at the back of both ears to his head. Of all things, this has once again, been the preverbal last straw for Z. Weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth and all. HOWEVER, happiness abounded once they were all removed. 

Overall, Zane got a very good report today. There's still a good bit of swelling, which is why I referred back to that original visual from Dr. Owen..."The ear will look like a potato for a while...then it'll shrink-wrap down to size!" For real. It's in the notes. SO, like I said, results are in...it's a potato! 

The new lobe and tragus will take more shape once that shrinking down occurs. The skin grafts are healing very nicely...bonus! Both ears look a little rough behind the ears where Dr. Owen added some extra skin to boost up the ears, but they're doing great!  Zane will continue to wear the Glascock dressing to bed in order to give that ear some bonus healing time without getting smashed! We then will go back for another follow up in 3-4 weeks, at which time he will get a new set of pink molds that will operate much like a retainers and will be worn at night to keep strengthening the shape of the ears. 

Couple HUGE answers to prayer:

Zane doesn't have to wear the "cone" to school anymore

Surgeries were very successful in every aspect

The big DOUBLE DIGIT bday swim shindig is a go next month

Things to continue to pray for:

Zane still has to stay inside for recess for at least another week. He's pretty bummed

Decreased swelling

Conversations to be had about the failed inner ear surgery

Adequate wound care all over both ears

Ok. That's it. Go home. Nothing to see here. Well, we all know that's not true. There's ALWAYS something to see here, but it may be best to just look away... :) Believe it or not, it's my surgical turn tomorrow! :/ Will update will I'm able, but it's super minor!!! 

Thanks again so much for continuing to pray for this sweet boy. And his dad. I hear he's an emotional mess! :) 

Update #2...Post #3...Still With Me?!?

First night post-op went as well as it possibly could have, the patient has downed a couple bowls of cereal, and the pain meds are flowing, so it's time for an update!!!

After a long 8 hours of surgery, Dr. Owen came in to give us the final report about our brave little man. 

Everything went as planned, plastics-wise. He was able to borrow the cartilage from the left ear to deal with the right lobe and tragus. He also beefed up both ears with additional skin grafts from the groin (roughly hip to belly button...yikers...but last time, it was hip-to-hip so trying to stay positive) behind both ears after cutting through that tethered skin. He has the pink foam stitched to his head, behind both ears, and the Glascock dressing (large plastic bubble on an elastic strap) covering his right ear. He'll have to wear this contraption for 2 weeks until we go back for the post-op on the 28th. 

Unfortunately, he was not able to do the electrolysis on the right ear because he didn't want to risk any negative side affects on the Med Por ear while it's still healing from the new lobe, tragus, and untethering. He also wants to wait so Zane is the "least-tan" possible so the process will work most effectively. (Side note: Zane is tan...like super dark tan...so this will be in the dead of winter. My fave.)

Of course, please pray for the obvious needs of healing and pain management. Once again, that pesky skin graft is the biggest offender. But there are some additional issues that could use some prayer. When the bandages come off, and Zane sees that the hairy patch isn't gone, he's going to be pretty bummed. We will prepare him, naturally, but reality tends to smack you in the face. Secondly, because he doesn't miss anything...like, ever...Zane was well-aware that Dr. Hansen fully expected him to be able to hear through the right ear post-surgery. Before bed last night, he put his finger in his left ear and excitedly said to Peyton, "Say something to me!!" When he couldn't hear from the right, there was obvious disappointment. We haven't broke the news that Hansen wasn't able to fix the hearing bone. Even though he rarely spoke about it, he was definitely hoping for the same result we all were. So we just told him that it was too early to hear and that we'd talk about it in a couple weeks. He's also pretty discouraged that he will once again have to start the school year with the "cone" and all the activity restrictions, and my promise to discuss things with the school/teachers aren't doing much to encourage him. So please pray for his heart and attitude with all these things, in addition to the healing/recovery.

Thanks so much for all your love and compassion, sweet friends. We are so thankful for each one of you! 

...and the results of surgery #7 are in...partially

When we checked in this morning, we were told the surgery was scheduled for a 6-hour time slot. "Shocked," I tell you...that was my reaction, since that was news to me and seemed extra long for the "simple procedures" planned. Then I switched to "happily surprised" when the docs said they only expected it to be actually around 3-4 hours...6 hours would be EXTREME. Now...we'll just go with "false amazement"...since we're now WAY past that wacky 6-hour mark. 

*please forgive the excessive amount of quotation marks*

*can't seem to just give straightforward information*

*why do I try to explain these things*

Anywhoooo, we do have some information on the first part of the surgery so I thought I'd go ahead and get moving on it.

While I was out shopping with the man-child for his upcoming college move-in date (we're fine. I'm fine. everything's fine), Dr. Hansen came in to update the hubs. I'll do my best to relay that info accurately. 

When they began exploring behind the ear drum, they discovered 2 bones that weren't "normal" but were working fine. The 3rd bone, the stapes, is fixed...the bones have to vibrate to conduct sound. The only thing to do for this is a stapedectomy, which will basically bypass the non-working bone. Unfortunately, this can only be done by going through the inner ear, which has some increased risk. 1 in 100 could experience complete hearing loss in that ear, with no future options available. He recommended waiting until Zane was between 12-14 yrs. to move forward. This is primarily due to two factors: our wild man would have to be motionless...MOTIONLESS...for several days...SEVERAL DAYS. You feel me? Also, due to the possible risk, Zane himself would have some input and need to understand the complications. For now, though, he would actually be able to be fitted for a "normal" hearing aid (not the surgical implant) and would, most likely, benefit from that tremendously because he does have some hearing in that new ear. 

No news yet on the countdown/anesthesia bet. I should be ashamed. But alas, I'm just hoping for that $10.

SO...bummer...it's not what we'd been hoping and praying for, but we are grateful to know exactly what we're dealing with and that there are still possibilities to explore in years to come. For now, we will let him recover from surgery and then set up that fitting for an in-ear hearing aid...which I'm reminding myself again...is a miracle all in itself. 

Time for the Second (well, technically the third, but who's counting) Go-Round in the Saga of Zane

Once again, here's the Mother-of-the-Year reporting in for duty! You'll be impressed to know that writing an update about Zane's surgery as been on my to-do list since...well, since last August. Wow. I even impress myself! :/

The good news is that I'll save you the mindless rambling that usually par-for-the-course in Eva World and get to the point! Hold it together, people.

The short version of this infamous saga is that Zane had an overall great year recovery-wise, and only ever heard, "Things are looking good," every time we went in for check-ups. That whole "no news is good news" really held up this past year. The ear continued to shrink down as it should, there were no more extrusions, and the ear canal held up beautifully. Having said that, there were some "setbacks," or things that didn't quite turn out as we'd hoped. One of the most obvious things is that the ears aren't the same height on Zane's head...it's not a huge deal (especially when his hair is longer) because, let's be honest, HE HAS AN EAR NOW WHERE THERE WAS NONE! I try to remind myself of that when I catch myself wishing they'd been able to match those up better. In case you have forgotten, we knew going in that the ears wouldn't be the same height because they needed to use the tissue/blood supply from his old ear, formally and affectionately known as the "nub." :) But again, I'm greedy and find myself wishing for things that don't really matter!

There were some issues that we could address, however, and that's what we're doing now. Today...right now...as we speak...my bad. 

The new ear lobe didn't quite work out as they'd hoped. It just didn't "shrink up" or form as it should have. Secondly, Dr. Owen deliberately hadn't created a tragus on the new ear, knowing he'd add it later once we saw how Zane's ear would respond. Next, the skin graft from behind his left ear continued to grow hair and, since it's on the front side of his new ear, we want to deal with that for Z, if possible. Another issue is where they stitched up that skin graft/left ear area, it didn't "pop back out" as anticipated...so it looks like he traded one ear for the another since his left ear was basically "pinned back." 

On another note, Dr. Hansen has been assessing the inner ear/canal for the past year and said it just couldn't look better! On paper, he should be hearing fully by now. So he determined it must be an issue with the hearing bones themselves. 

Still with me?!? Maybe covering a full year of Zane in one blog post was a bit much...yet here we are. Again...my bad. So once again, my favorite little man is under the knife, as we speak. We'd hoped to have this surgery and subsequent recovery over and done with before the start of the new school year, but that wasn't meant to be. So he will start another school year with the beloved pink foam and plastic bubble head wrap. 

*insert profound sarcasm and disgust face* 

The plan is simple...at least from the perspective of the medical team. It's pretty profound to the likes of most of us...ok maybe just me. 

Dr. Owen will borrow cartilage from the left ear to fix the right ear lobe and create the tragus. He will take more skin grafts from the groin area to cover the new areas...just adding to that impressive scar he got the last time. He will do electrolosist on the hairy patch, and he'll untether that left ear. Dr. Hansen will open up the ear drum and scope out the situation with those 3 bones to see what's to be done. It could be any number of issues that they might discover once inside. one or multiple bones might be missing, they might be there but are fractured, or they may simply be misplaced. If it's any of those issues, they'll fix it...and the final result will be Zane will be hearing surround sound before you know it!!! WOW...how incredible would that be?!? So basically...NBD, as the kids say.
 Funny story...Dr. Hansen encouraged Zane to make a bet with the anesthesiologist..."bet you $10 that I can count to 10 before you get me to sleep!"...and then told him to count super fast. So he did. And the dude took him up on it. Couple things to note: Zane has been training. Working his game. Putting in the time. This is the big time. And let me tell you, if Mr Doctor Man doesn't pay up, they're gonna have one unhappy little patient. Or, I should say, Dr. Hansen will be the one paying up. Because I can assure you, SOMEONE will be paying up. 

We will be updating (for real...relax) once he's out of surgery. Stay tuned and once again, we are so very thankful for your prayers!