We went to Brody's checkup last week wednesday. We had great answers from our local ENT. He looked at the canal and was pleased with the size but wanted us to do the canal tips as the DRs in California reccomended. Dr Kershner cleaned out the ear with lots of debri and wax, following the cleaning he then placed the first canal tip in his ear. This whole process went very well, Brody does pretty good, but I think laying on the table is a little intimidating. Therefore Mom had to also lay on the table! :) oh the things we do!
I contacted California with all my concerns about the next surgery. They were very considerate and addressed all of them. This I am very thankful for, as I was stressing out a little bit. We still haven't decided whether we are staying out there the extra week or not this time around.
Today we need to make a special mold for brody's canal which he will wear at night for the next 4 months. Hopefully his canal will stay the size it is now and will continue to heal properly!
We are starting our plans for this years benefit. We are looking for donations for raffle items and volunteers to help work the 2 days of the pumpkin patch. The benefit is October 12 & 13. If anyone has any new ideas we are open to them as well.
We need to go back next week for another cleaning in Milwaukee and check up.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Narrowing Canal... Stressed Mom.... Post-op #4
Brody has been doing amazingly well through out this whole first surgery experience.... which makes me sooo happy. :)
Our last email & update to CA we were told that we needed to do Brody's mold for his ear... We were not aware of a mold when we were out there, nor were they in our post surgery instructions. This part was a little confusing to us, since when we deal with schduleing of appoinments we talk with one person, then for post care another person, and so on and so forth... We have been getting mixed answers. This is a little stressful for me. I feel that I need these questions answered in a timely manner to prevent infections and etc... narrowing of the canal!
We have been sending updated pictures to the Doctor out in CA throughout our whole post surgery healing. With the last photo that I sent, we got some not so great reply back... Brody's canal is narrowing more then it should be. So he needs to wear 'canal tips' for 3 days straight with some special gel on it to help make the canal wider. With this being said, it sounds easy to just put in a canal tip, aka ear plug, in his ear right? Well not so easy with 3 year old. Brody does not let me touch his canal at all... He finally has gotten used to doing the drops everynight, we are in a routine. (Not touching the canal at all) Now we are suppose to place this oversized ear plug in his ear.... Well lets just say this was not a very pleasant experience. It started with lots of tears and ended with more tears and no canal tip in the canal, ugh.... I think Brody has a lot of debri in his canal from surgery yet... This maybe causing some irritation in his canal. Therefore his canal is red in spots as well. I am hoping that tomorrow at our #4 post-op appointment, in Milwaukee, he will have his canal cleaned throughly and this will help with the canal tips over the next several days. (My one concern here, is I have to convince our Milwaukee Dr that he needs to do the microscopic cleaning which our CA Doctor is recommending to prevent infections. Mind you, the Milwaukee Dr said we didn't even need to come to this next appointment.) Then hoping that he will place the canal tips in place for the first time so we do not have a repeat of try #1 with all the tears. (Brody & Mom) Wish us luck here!!
I was told today on the phone from the Drs in CA that we are recommended to stay out there for a 3-4 week period for the surgery. When we schduled our first surgery we were told only a week after the surgery. I have already booked, the hotel and plane tickets. Now I need to get down to business and figure out exactly how long we need to stay in June. I just want to do everything "PERFECT" for the little man and make sure we do everything the correct way to optimize his healing! Maybe I should just move to California for the next year, so we can have the experts at our finger tips and relieve a little stress. ;)
Please send up a few extra prayers for Brody as well as his very stressed out Mom! We are praying that Wednesday's appointment goes smoothly! ;) Will update more after our next appoinment Wednesday evening!
Our last email & update to CA we were told that we needed to do Brody's mold for his ear... We were not aware of a mold when we were out there, nor were they in our post surgery instructions. This part was a little confusing to us, since when we deal with schduleing of appoinments we talk with one person, then for post care another person, and so on and so forth... We have been getting mixed answers. This is a little stressful for me. I feel that I need these questions answered in a timely manner to prevent infections and etc... narrowing of the canal!
We have been sending updated pictures to the Doctor out in CA throughout our whole post surgery healing. With the last photo that I sent, we got some not so great reply back... Brody's canal is narrowing more then it should be. So he needs to wear 'canal tips' for 3 days straight with some special gel on it to help make the canal wider. With this being said, it sounds easy to just put in a canal tip, aka ear plug, in his ear right? Well not so easy with 3 year old. Brody does not let me touch his canal at all... He finally has gotten used to doing the drops everynight, we are in a routine. (Not touching the canal at all) Now we are suppose to place this oversized ear plug in his ear.... Well lets just say this was not a very pleasant experience. It started with lots of tears and ended with more tears and no canal tip in the canal, ugh.... I think Brody has a lot of debri in his canal from surgery yet... This maybe causing some irritation in his canal. Therefore his canal is red in spots as well. I am hoping that tomorrow at our #4 post-op appointment, in Milwaukee, he will have his canal cleaned throughly and this will help with the canal tips over the next several days. (My one concern here, is I have to convince our Milwaukee Dr that he needs to do the microscopic cleaning which our CA Doctor is recommending to prevent infections. Mind you, the Milwaukee Dr said we didn't even need to come to this next appointment.) Then hoping that he will place the canal tips in place for the first time so we do not have a repeat of try #1 with all the tears. (Brody & Mom) Wish us luck here!!
I was told today on the phone from the Drs in CA that we are recommended to stay out there for a 3-4 week period for the surgery. When we schduled our first surgery we were told only a week after the surgery. I have already booked, the hotel and plane tickets. Now I need to get down to business and figure out exactly how long we need to stay in June. I just want to do everything "PERFECT" for the little man and make sure we do everything the correct way to optimize his healing! Maybe I should just move to California for the next year, so we can have the experts at our finger tips and relieve a little stress. ;)
Please send up a few extra prayers for Brody as well as his very stressed out Mom! We are praying that Wednesday's appointment goes smoothly! ;) Will update more after our next appoinment Wednesday evening!
Saturday, May 4, 2013
May. ENT. 1 Month Post Op....
Hello folks, Hope everyone is enjoying this rainy-warm spring weather. We sure are loving these warm days as both Brody and Rilyn love being outside. We have had a BUSY April!! I'm not sure where it went? :)
We had Brody's 2nd post op appointment on April 22nd. We decided to go to a local ENT in Berlin. I was hoping to save a little travel time to go local and not drive to Milwaukee to the Children's Hospital. Well much to our surprise, this was a BAD decision. We had a not-so-good experience with this ENT and decided that our next appoinment will be made in Milwaukee, even if it takes 10 hours to get there! ;) Brody did great at the appoinment, he sat there like a big boy and was excited to go to "the Tractor store" after for doing such a great job. Mom & Dad on the other hand were not so relaxed. But we all survived and his brand new canal looks AWESOME and we are overjoyed to have had the oppurtunity to go through this whole process.... so far.
Brody's next appoinment is this Wednesday in Milwaukee at the Children's Hospital with our regular ENT who has experience with this type of operation. Here they will be removing the disk in his canal along with any left over packing and I believe lightly cleaning it. I'm excited to hear what the ENT has to say!
Over the last month we have noticed that Brody's hearing has increased greatly!! Not at first, but within the last few weeks, I hear brody say; "What's that noise?" and "Did you heat that?" and "What is that?" and my favorite as of tonight; " I can hear without my hearing aides! " Whenever he says things like this, I get butterflies in my stomach and think to myself, Is this really happening? can he really hear without his BAHAs? The Lord is amazing and has blessed us with amazing doctors to help us in this journey!! :) I am soo happy tonight and can't stop smiling!
Some amazing people in the community have hosted some fundraisers for Brody the last few weeks. The Country Pub Crawl and a Zumbathon. I participated in both these events and was shown so much support and kindness from all the people who organized and participated in these events. THANK YOU! you know who you are!!!!
Last weekend we attended the Germania Benefit Parade. This is a wonderful event which raises money for people in need. They have donated to Brody and we are so thankful and are happy to come and support it for others in need.
Today we booked our flight, hotel, and rental car for our 2nd surgery! Yeah we are more excited this time around, which is better then being nervous nellies the whole time!! Brody asked the other day if we could go shopping for California. I'll take this as a sign as he is ready for phase 2 and another trip for surgery!
I also wanted to thank you all for following us and our journey, as of tonight, Brody's Harvest for Hearing facebook page has 307 "LIKES" This melts my heart that there is this many people who care and support our Brody Boy!! Plus all our followers on the blog and website!!! :)
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