Day 27: To hear is to be happy!

Today, we made another journey down to Palo Alto. I may be able to recite the Disney movie, "Cars" by heart before Jack has two ears, but boy does that make the drive easy.

Dr. Colen cleaned Jack's ear a bit, much to his distress. Then Dr. Roberson came in and removed all of the packing. Though Dr. Roberson assured me this was not painful for Jack, he was no less hysterical. Dr. Roberson was granted the gift of amazing patience in the midst of one squirmy, screaming little boy. It was very hard to hold him and not cry with him. Soon enough, it was all out. In a very low and soft voice, I asked Jack, "Do you want your Spiderman snacks now?" and he quickly replied, "Yes." He is most definitely hearing very clearly! Just amazing. He swiftly recovered from all the trauma and was a very HAPPY boy for the remainder of the day. When we went outside, a large truck was driving by the office behind some bushes. Jack located the sound of the truck immediately and tracked it as it passed the office even though it was behind the bushes. Sound localization has been a huge struggle for Jack and that was really just incredible to witness.

Dr. Roberson says that the skin grafts have healed very nicely and that the ear drum is secure all the way around. He says it looks really good.

We will see Dr. Roberson again on March 4 for a hearing test and we will know more then. I can say without a doubt that Jack is hearing MUCH better than before.

Dr. Reinisch sent an e-mail this morning encouraging us to clean Jack's ear and remove the sutures. He is warning us that if we leave them in too long, it will increase scarring and leave suture tract cysts. Dr. Roberson cleared Jack for a bath tonight, so I knew we would be cleaning that ear (and the rest of the grubby little boy that hasn't had a bath really in nearly a month!). In hind sight, I wish we had just rubbed on the ear like Dr. Reinisch suggested last week. I didn't realize how easily some of it would come off.

So, first we used q-tips and hydrogen peroxide and just rubbed on the stitches (while Jack watched a movie). A lot came off with that.















Then, a BATH! I really can't believe he hasn't had a proper bath in nearly 4 weeks. Gross. Anyway, he was thrilled to be taking a bath and could hear me even with the little cotton in his ear.














While he was in the bath, I washed his hair and tried to get some of the scabby dead skin off his skin graft sites. It looks like a really bad case of cradle cap and that stuff is just not coming off. I will just have to keep at it. I also washed his ear a bit more. Here is what it looked like after all that:



It is definitely getting better every day! Today was a great day and it was fun to see Jack so bubbly and happy and conversational.

Many people have asked, so I will share that we have Jack's second surgery scheduled for May 12. I really feel better about that after today!