This morning was not as stressful as last time. Chris woke Jack up and changed him into his froggy jammies (not planned - he was supposed to sleep in those but had a major diaper blowout last night causing me to go on a jammie hunt at 8pm on a Sunday - thank you Sheri for guiding me to a Target). I told Jack that it was time to go to surgery and to get Rhino. Jack said, "Can I go with him?" Funny. As a matter of fact, yes, you can go with Rhino.
Jack at the surgery center in the morning:
We arrived around 6:20am and checked in. The nurses remember us from last time. Jack is more cooperative and things go smoothly. We have the same anethesiologist and we are very happy about that. He called last night and gave us instructions - remember no eating after midnight, no liquids after 5:30am and juice or water only at that point. He has such a great style and is very knowledgable and caring. We know Jack is in good hands. Jack drank his happy juice *yuck* and got... happy. Rhino got a leg band and is all prepped for surgery. Before we know it, they wheel him off.
We are waiting here by ourselves today and are doing Sudoku and crosswords to keep busy. I thought I would write a little update, in case people are checking today during the surgery. The nurse brought Rhino out and I stuffed him and stitched him back up. We really needed a fur graft, but I think I did okay until Moxie gets ahold of him again. Rhino also got a very cute ear bandage. I am sure Jack will find that amusing.
Things are more on schedule this time and Dr. Reinisch came out earlier to let us know that they had cleaned Jack's right ear out a little more under the scope. His ear drum looks really good from his surgery in January. Dr. Reinisch pulled back the left ear flap for Dr. Roberson to start the canal and then came out to give us an update. Dr. Reinisch figured that Dr. Roberson would be done by 11 or so.
About 11:15 (I think) Dr. Roberson and Dr. Colen came out and gave us an update. Overall, things went well. The facial nerve is doing well and he is pleased with the canal placement. Jack's middle ear bones were deformed though and they removed the malleus and incus bones. We knew that Jack's left ear was not a good as his right and that the middle ear space was smaller. Dr. Roberson will have to do a second surgery on that ear to put in prosthetic bones if Jack is unable to hear with just the stapes. Sometimes, the connection with the stapes is good enough to result in hearing improvement. If not, the second surgery gets an improved result about 80% of the time (in typical atresia repair - results for the combined surgery are not known). This is not great news that the bones were deformed, but we are still hopeful for good hearing in this ear. I have attached an ear diagram for those who want to understand this better:
Chris has gone to retrieve some lunch... More later...
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