Our flight home was uneventful! *This is a good thing. We traveled all day... left the hotel at 6ish AM and got home (to our home in MONTELLO) 9ish PM that night. It was a long day espically since I had aquired a horrible cold! But we were very happy to be sleeping in our own beds!
Brody has been a trooper through this whole process, through the ups and downs, I have to say the ups are far more then the downs! (I know I say he is a trooper alot, but I am surprised how well he has done with the whole thing) And the best part is, I feel like he is a changed kid. He likes to show off his ear with his "big hole". At the airport he made friends with a little boy about the same age as him, and the little boy asked brody what happened to your ear. Brody proudly said," I had surgery!" The boy clearly didn't know what surgery was, so he comes over by me, and I said to him, "Tell him that you had surgery to get a hole to help you hear better." And he did. Just the way he said it, you could tell he was very proud of it. The little boy still didn't quite get it, but I just loved watching Brody talk about it.
We have to put drops in brody's new canal 2 times a day... at first this was a real treat, with brody not wanting anything to do with it. Now he does it willingly!!! :) 11 days after his surgery, we are bandage free... His last bandage that was covering the skin graft site fell off! Brody was excited and showing off the bandage!! (not that anyone would want to see it) Lol
Over all Brody is doing great! He is back to all his normal running and fighting with his sister. The only exception is we can's wash his hair yet. We are getting there. One phase at a time! This weekend is a fundraiser for Brody, which I'm excited to be a part of, County Bar Pub Crawl. Then next weekend is a Zumbathon with proceeds going to Brody as well!! We are soo thankful to the wonderful people who want to help with this journey! (for more info on these, check out the fundraiser tab on website.)
My goal this week is to get the airplane tickets and hotel booked for our second phase of "Brody's Big Boy Ears." June 20th will be here quickly!
Lots of Love, and thank you all for sticking with us!
Monday, April 15, 2013
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Tuesday. Park. Home.
Tuesday. Today we went to our final post-op Appointment with the Drs.. Brody was very nervous to go as he tells me he doesn't like the Drs.. :( I try to tell him that this is a good thing that he is getting this done now but trying to explain pain to a three year old is not my for-Taye. With that in mind, our last appointment was a lot of tears and a little kicking! :( but in the end we were all smiles and hugs for dr Roberson and his crew, with the promise of purple ice cream on the way home. The dr said everything looks normal and wanted to warn us that with him being so scared, our next post op appointment back home might need to have a little bribing and maybe even some "sleepy medicine" . Oh boy!
Following the appointment we went to a local park and let the kids run around and play for a few hours. Then on to find the purple ice cream!
We'll the week has been an experience at the least! Lots of ups and downs! We are very thankful for the doctors here and their amazing talent! They make us feel like part of there family! We are over joyed that the outcome of the surgery seems to be perfect as of now! With lots of hope for a successful healing process. Brody is ready for home,and so are James and I! Living out of a hotel has its perks, but mostly we need to get back to our normalcy of back home! If there really is such a thing! Somehow Brody and I attracted colds. Not fun! And I got a swollen eye lid, maybe a Sty? (I have no idea what cause these,but it may be a stress factor!) lol
Better hit that hay! We need to be out of the hotel and on the road to the airport by 6 am!
Night all! The next post will be from Wisconsin! By the way, the temp today was 76 degrees. I will try to pack as much of the sunny weather as i can in the suitcase with me! :)
Following the appointment we went to a local park and let the kids run around and play for a few hours. Then on to find the purple ice cream!
We'll the week has been an experience at the least! Lots of ups and downs! We are very thankful for the doctors here and their amazing talent! They make us feel like part of there family! We are over joyed that the outcome of the surgery seems to be perfect as of now! With lots of hope for a successful healing process. Brody is ready for home,and so are James and I! Living out of a hotel has its perks, but mostly we need to get back to our normalcy of back home! If there really is such a thing! Somehow Brody and I attracted colds. Not fun! And I got a swollen eye lid, maybe a Sty? (I have no idea what cause these,but it may be a stress factor!) lol
Better hit that hay! We need to be out of the hotel and on the road to the airport by 6 am!
Night all! The next post will be from Wisconsin! By the way, the temp today was 76 degrees. I will try to pack as much of the sunny weather as i can in the suitcase with me! :)
Sunday. Monday. San Fran....
First and foremost I want to say thank you to everyone for all the thoughts and prayers and encouraging words... This was very hard for me to do at first but knowing the end result it was exactly what we needed to do for Brody. :) a great big thank you to Tiffany for all the advice and help for our first stay in California. She even lent her shoulder for me to cry on as we were taking Brody to his first surgery. Lots of love to and from her! Many thanks to everyone at home! Wordscannot describe how thankful we are to everyone for your support from our very first fundraiser to the love we have received for Brody's first surgery. The journey is long but our first stop has been a wonderful experience and are still praying for good hearing and healing results....................
Sunday was a day for relaxing. We didn't do anything as the kids were both tired. Rilyn took a good nap and Brody and daddy played monster trucks for a good part of the day. W wanted to try a new place to eat, so we went to the hobbit, a charcoal burger grill place. I tried the shrimp burger which was very good and everyone else had beef burgers which were also very tasty.
Monday: we decided to go to San Francisco to do a little sight seeing. Went and saw a whole bunch of sea lions on pier 39 and walked around fishermans wharf, this is like an exact double of the dells. Al the attractions of downtown dells, shops,, little museums, and souvenir shops . We also rode the trolley up and down the steep hilly streets. On the way home we drove over the golden gate bride and thru John Mur woods ( a national park, I think ) both kids fell asleep as soon as they got in there car seats.
Sorry for the delayed update, wanted to do it last night but a very needy little boy needed my attention! ;) today we go for our last post operation appointment while in. California. Hope it goes well and they give us the ok to fly home! Brody is ready to go home and we need to get out of the hotel house as well! Going to enjoy our last sunny day as well as I hear the weather is not to nice back home! We fly back Wednesday, hopefully we get back before all the snow and ice!
Sunday was a day for relaxing. We didn't do anything as the kids were both tired. Rilyn took a good nap and Brody and daddy played monster trucks for a good part of the day. W wanted to try a new place to eat, so we went to the hobbit, a charcoal burger grill place. I tried the shrimp burger which was very good and everyone else had beef burgers which were also very tasty.
Monday: we decided to go to San Francisco to do a little sight seeing. Went and saw a whole bunch of sea lions on pier 39 and walked around fishermans wharf, this is like an exact double of the dells. Al the attractions of downtown dells, shops,, little museums, and souvenir shops . We also rode the trolley up and down the steep hilly streets. On the way home we drove over the golden gate bride and thru John Mur woods ( a national park, I think ) both kids fell asleep as soon as they got in there car seats.
Sorry for the delayed update, wanted to do it last night but a very needy little boy needed my attention! ;) today we go for our last post operation appointment while in. California. Hope it goes well and they give us the ok to fly home! Brody is ready to go home and we need to get out of the hotel house as well! Going to enjoy our last sunny day as well as I hear the weather is not to nice back home! We fly back Wednesday, hopefully we get back before all the snow and ice!
Saturday, April 6, 2013
More animals and back to normal Brody!
Brody had so much fun looking at the animals at the little zoo yesterday we decided to travel to Oakland and check out the big zoo today! It was nice to go in a different direction then we normally go and see some of the beautiful California country side. We spent about 3hrs at the zoo which wore us all out! Brody and Rilyn both slept all the way home (which they both needed since naps havent really existed since we've been here). Brody's favorite animal at the zoo was the elephants. He also enjoyed the mini train ride that took us around the zoo!
Brody is defiantly recovering very well, today he was back to his wild self, always on the go and wanting to be outside to play, although we do have to remind him to take it easy and not to run around to much! Easier said then done when your dealing with a 3 year old!
His canal and skin graft appear to be healing well also with minimal bleeding today. He still hasn't really complained of any pain so that is good. We are just amazed on how fast he has bounced back since surgery and continue to pray that everything heals without any problems.
Brody is defiantly recovering very well, today he was back to his wild self, always on the go and wanting to be outside to play, although we do have to remind him to take it easy and not to run around to much! Easier said then done when your dealing with a 3 year old!
His canal and skin graft appear to be healing well also with minimal bleeding today. He still hasn't really complained of any pain so that is good. We are just amazed on how fast he has bounced back since surgery and continue to pray that everything heals without any problems.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Zoo, pills....
We needed to get Brody's bandages taken off sometime today. He was very hesitate to take them off, so we compromised and went to a children's museum and little zoo first. It was perfect for the kids. Thanks to Tiffany and manny for the tip and the free little attraction. Brody enjoys animals very much and was excited to see them all. He couldn't get to the next animal fast enough. This was a nice break from the hotel scene and slow paced for Brody. Then we went to little garden park and walked around for a while touring the veggi gardens, flower, natives, and formal gardens they were very nice and many of the plants were similar to the ones in Wisconsin.
When it came time to go to the dr office for the bandage removal, Brody was scared. Not sure if he was starting to get sore or just sick of the poking and prodding. But we went in there with big smiles and come out with a toy from the toy basket. He cried just a little right before they took the bandage off because he didn't want to sit in the big chair, moms lap was the choice seat!
Headed back to the hotel house in hopes of naps but rilyn fell asleep on way to hotel and Brody was like a new man with the bandage off. He was so full of energy, we were telling him to calm down and hoping he would just sit and watch movies. He just wanted to see more animals and get out of the room.
Brody's canal started to bleed quite a bit. Not knowing anything about this surgery thing, called the dr office to make sure this was ok. The skin graft area was also more saturated then when we first took the bandages off. They said it is very normal for the area to bleed. So we went to target to get some more gauze, medical tape, bandaides , and movies.(in hopes Brody would relax). After one episode. Of chugging ton we decided we needed to but some. Gauze over his canal which is. Still bleeding alot. Brody did not want us to touch his ear, so we had to do some intense talking and convincing to get him to let us put it on him. This basically ended up with daddy with gauze and tape oh his ear and mommy with gauze and tape on her ear and then finally with Brody! :)
He got very Whiney and sad this afternoon. Whenever we ask him how his ear is, he always says good. I think he just doesn't want to take any more medicine. But we convinced him to take some Tylonel chewable s ( this again was a mommy do it first) then it was ok once he realized it was bubblegum flavored!
Brody got to Skype with hadien and Nolan-y and auntie christa. Then later tonight with grandpa Larry and Nina. Was suppose to have a Skype date with Amanda and joe but Brody was a little to tired and passed out a few minutes before the call!
Brody is missing home and has said a few times he wants to go home! Hopefully he will be feeling good in the morning and we can find something fun to do.
When it came time to go to the dr office for the bandage removal, Brody was scared. Not sure if he was starting to get sore or just sick of the poking and prodding. But we went in there with big smiles and come out with a toy from the toy basket. He cried just a little right before they took the bandage off because he didn't want to sit in the big chair, moms lap was the choice seat!
Headed back to the hotel house in hopes of naps but rilyn fell asleep on way to hotel and Brody was like a new man with the bandage off. He was so full of energy, we were telling him to calm down and hoping he would just sit and watch movies. He just wanted to see more animals and get out of the room.
Brody's canal started to bleed quite a bit. Not knowing anything about this surgery thing, called the dr office to make sure this was ok. The skin graft area was also more saturated then when we first took the bandages off. They said it is very normal for the area to bleed. So we went to target to get some more gauze, medical tape, bandaides , and movies.(in hopes Brody would relax). After one episode. Of chugging ton we decided we needed to but some. Gauze over his canal which is. Still bleeding alot. Brody did not want us to touch his ear, so we had to do some intense talking and convincing to get him to let us put it on him. This basically ended up with daddy with gauze and tape oh his ear and mommy with gauze and tape on her ear and then finally with Brody! :)
He got very Whiney and sad this afternoon. Whenever we ask him how his ear is, he always says good. I think he just doesn't want to take any more medicine. But we convinced him to take some Tylonel chewable s ( this again was a mommy do it first) then it was ok once he realized it was bubblegum flavored!
Brody got to Skype with hadien and Nolan-y and auntie christa. Then later tonight with grandpa Larry and Nina. Was suppose to have a Skype date with Amanda and joe but Brody was a little to tired and passed out a few minutes before the call!
Brody is missing home and has said a few times he wants to go home! Hopefully he will be feeling good in the morning and we can find something fun to do.
Recovering and cartoons....
Thursday after surgery. Brody got out of surgery at 12:55 I think he would have slept all day if they would have left him. They said it usually takes about half hour to an hour to wake up. We were going on an hour and 15 min so they woke him up. TechnicAlly he had his eyes open but I don't think he was really awake. Very draggy and out of it. They took out his IV and then we got him dressed, and headed to our hotel house. Brody slept the whole way back to the hotel. Then he slept for about another hour. Woke up and wanted to play with his "special surgery" toy, monster trucks that he picked out the day before. They he was hungry and watched cartoons and movies the rest of the night. He is quite the trooper. Never complained about any pain at all. Then he slept the whole night threw with daddy.
Friday.... Woke up and was thirsty. Drank some chocolate milk and got some more presents for being such a good boy on surgery day! Then we played with the toys and we went to they lobby for breakfast. Brody wanted to sit on the patio and eat breakfast so we had a refreshing breakfast in the crisp morning air. Brody says his ear doesn't hurt at all and feels good. No pain medicine yet.
Now we are headed to the dr office to take off Brody's bandages. And if he is up for it. We will be going to the children's museum in palo alto.
Friday.... Woke up and was thirsty. Drank some chocolate milk and got some more presents for being such a good boy on surgery day! Then we played with the toys and we went to they lobby for breakfast. Brody wanted to sit on the patio and eat breakfast so we had a refreshing breakfast in the crisp morning air. Brody says his ear doesn't hurt at all and feels good. No pain medicine yet.
Now we are headed to the dr office to take off Brody's bandages. And if he is up for it. We will be going to the children's museum in palo alto.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Out of surgery 12:55 pm....
Praise The Lord! Brody's surgery went wonderful. Dr Roberson said he did great and the middle bones are connected and the stapes is functioning. He should get good hearing results, even in a few days! Now just waiting for him to wake up. Thank you everyone! God is GREAT!
Surgery day....
We dropped rilyn off at 7 am with our friend, Tiffany. At the hospital at 7:15 am. Brody was suppose to be prepping at 7:30 but they were a little delayed today. We just left him at 10:25 as he left with anistegiolist, he was going to be a pilot with a " sky mask"! Brody did not want to drink his sleepy medicine,but ended up drinking half of it so that was enough to do the job. Waiting to meet dr Roberson yet, and then he will start the 2.5 hour surgery.
Just met with dr. Starting surgery now at 10:49am. Will post update tonight. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers.... Brody did wonderful and was asking all kinds of questions when he was in the operation room before his "airplane flight" aka sleepy mask! ;)
Just met with dr. Starting surgery now at 10:49am. Will post update tonight. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers.... Brody did wonderful and was asking all kinds of questions when he was in the operation room before his "airplane flight" aka sleepy mask! ;)
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Day before surgery...
Wednesday. Today started out early with Rilyn yelling, "mama where are you, mama?" This defiantly put a smile on both James and my face, with Brody walking into our room ten minutes later. (5:00am) then we proceeded to have a pj party in the bed and ended with a Skype with grandma and papa and uncle Matt. We couldn't get the video to work so the kids lost interest fast. It was nice to hear all the news back home even though we have only been gone two days.
We went to target to get some groceries and snacks for the hotel room, as I'm sure we will be not leaving it for a few days.... Brody needed to get some flip flops since it is defiantly sandal weather here. The trip ended with very tired kiddos and went back to "hotel house" as Brody calls it. W need to let the kids run and playas Brody will need to keep it on the DL for two weeks following surgery. Our hotel has a rec area where we played basketball(and of course Brody played band), walked around scouting out all the palm trees and beautiful flowers and SNAILS! Then we headed to the pre-op appointment and hearing tests.
Brody got to choose what wee had for supper. McDonald's happy meal with extra pickles... The kids pretty much only eat the pickles, but it makes me feel good when they take two bites of there apple slices! ;) I went to the hotel lobby for social hour which consisted of free wine, yahoooo...... Don't worry I only had, Two glasses to loosen the edge. And realized that they have free meals from at night as well as breakfast, score!
Well better get to sleep. Surgery is at 9 am. Which means we need to be there at 7:30am. We are thankful that Tiffany (Manny's mom) is watching rilyn for us tomorrow so we can give Brody our undevided attention! Pays to have friends all over! (Speaking about friends, we ran into an old friend, Kyle, at the airport and shared the plane with him to SFO)
Just got off the the phone the anastegiolist and was reassured that Brody is in GREAT hands and they will take wonderful care of our little man! Please keep us and Brody in your prayers. Tomorrow is the day that we have been waiting for, for a long time! :)
We went to target to get some groceries and snacks for the hotel room, as I'm sure we will be not leaving it for a few days.... Brody needed to get some flip flops since it is defiantly sandal weather here. The trip ended with very tired kiddos and went back to "hotel house" as Brody calls it. W need to let the kids run and playas Brody will need to keep it on the DL for two weeks following surgery. Our hotel has a rec area where we played basketball(and of course Brody played band), walked around scouting out all the palm trees and beautiful flowers and SNAILS! Then we headed to the pre-op appointment and hearing tests.
Brody got to choose what wee had for supper. McDonald's happy meal with extra pickles... The kids pretty much only eat the pickles, but it makes me feel good when they take two bites of there apple slices! ;) I went to the hotel lobby for social hour which consisted of free wine, yahoooo...... Don't worry I only had, Two glasses to loosen the edge. And realized that they have free meals from at night as well as breakfast, score!
Well better get to sleep. Surgery is at 9 am. Which means we need to be there at 7:30am. We are thankful that Tiffany (Manny's mom) is watching rilyn for us tomorrow so we can give Brody our undevided attention! Pays to have friends all over! (Speaking about friends, we ran into an old friend, Kyle, at the airport and shared the plane with him to SFO)
Just got off the the phone the anastegiolist and was reassured that Brody is in GREAT hands and they will take wonderful care of our little man! Please keep us and Brody in your prayers. Tomorrow is the day that we have been waiting for, for a long time! :)
Airplane. Manny.
Tuesday. Today we flew out to California. I was nervous for our 4 hour and 45 min airplane ride, mostly for rilyn, 17 months old. But they both did great! Brody mostly colored and watched out the window. Rilyn ate snacks the whole time! :) Brody kept looking at me and saying I'm not scared, this is fun.
prior to today Brody has been acting differently, I think the anticipation of the surgery. Once we landed and got all our luggage he looked at me with a big smile on his face and says, "mom are we going to get my big ear now?" I was so happy that he was excited to get a big ear, and in return explained that we are getting a "hole" to help him hear better. And the big ear is later down the road.
We met up with a family from beaver dam who's son manny is having surgery on wednesday. We had dinner and Brody was excited to see another child who has big ears just like he will be getting. Mannys mom, tiffany has been very helpful with the planning of the surgery as well as lots of tips and advice. The boys were excited to meet but a little bashful at first. We wish manny the best of luck on his surgery! Tiffany even offered to babysit rilyn for us when Brody is in surgery, we may have to take her up on her offer!
Tomorrow we need to do a little shopping for some snack and then to our pre op-op appointments in the afternoon. Hopefully naps too since we are still on Wisconsin time and it is two hours behind here.
Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. We can feel them all the way is sunny california!
prior to today Brody has been acting differently, I think the anticipation of the surgery. Once we landed and got all our luggage he looked at me with a big smile on his face and says, "mom are we going to get my big ear now?" I was so happy that he was excited to get a big ear, and in return explained that we are getting a "hole" to help him hear better. And the big ear is later down the road.
We met up with a family from beaver dam who's son manny is having surgery on wednesday. We had dinner and Brody was excited to see another child who has big ears just like he will be getting. Mannys mom, tiffany has been very helpful with the planning of the surgery as well as lots of tips and advice. The boys were excited to meet but a little bashful at first. We wish manny the best of luck on his surgery! Tiffany even offered to babysit rilyn for us when Brody is in surgery, we may have to take her up on her offer!
Tomorrow we need to do a little shopping for some snack and then to our pre op-op appointments in the afternoon. Hopefully naps too since we are still on Wisconsin time and it is two hours behind here.
Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. We can feel them all the way is sunny california!
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