Hearing Test and Check-up with Dr. Roberson

Today we were back in Palo Alto where Brody had his canal surgery's done earlier this year by Dr. Roberson.  Brody had a hearing test for both ears to see where he is at with his hearing.  He did a great job with the test.  He played the throw the ball in the basket game when he hears the Birdy.  The audiologist said that he is hearing about the same in both ears which is great news meaning the prosthesis is doing its job in his right ear!   We then met up with Dr. Roberson for a check-up and to talk about his hearing.  He cleaned his right ear canal a little and also made a new mold for his new ear to wear at night to protect it, and to keep the canal the proper size.  He will wear this mold for the next 4 months at night.   Dr. Roberson  then went on to tell us that we (in his exact words) "HIT A HOME RUN" with Brody's hearing!!  He was more then happy with the hearing test results and told us he is hearing at 95% and there was really no need to wear his hearing aids!  This was the best news we have heard yet, since our goal in all this was to get him to normal hearing unaided!!!!!!! 

We had an appointment scheduled for Thursday just In case Brody's canal was to small he would have needed to wear a plug for a couple nights that makes the canal bigger before Dr. Roberson made the new mold.  The canal was good size so there was no need to come back!  We then said our good bye's until we meet back up with the CEI crew in January!

Tomorrow we are headed to a cool place in San Jose called Happy Hollow,  We took Brody there when we were here in June so he wants to show Rilyn all the fun rides and animals there!  We will then be flying home Thursday instead of Friday which we are all excited for, to be finally back in Wisconsin!!

Our princess Rilyn playing in our beautiful back yard at the last rental house.

My silly kiddos having fun!!!

My all-pro sports guy!!! :)

Cheese....



The world famous Doctor Rienich... We are soo thankful for him.

Last leg of our journey for September...(9.23.13)

After Brody got his ear cup off it was kind of a relief! We had been anticipated this for a long time.  We have to be careful for his ear to make sure there are no significant bumps, falls, wrestling matches, Etc. so far he has been very careful I think because it is very sensitive yet and new. Even Rilyn knows she needs to be careful!

Today we checked out of our house and had an appointment with Dr Renisch . He said everything looks good. And would like us to send him photos of Brody's ears. He likes to see all of his patients at least once a year. He informed us that his daughter just moved to Chicago so he would be more then willing to meet up with us there! :)

We are flying to San Jose tonight and checking into our stay bridge suites (with air conditioning). Our flight is to leave at 8:40pm.... When we checked in it had already been delayed 10 minutes.... Hopefully this is all it will be delayed. We are to arrive in San Jose at 9:40pm, so either it will be a peaceful ride or a very loud one!

Tuesday we have Brody's hearing test with the California ear institute and then our appointment with dr Roberson! Wish us luck! Thank again to everyone for your thoughts and prayers! We are extremely excited that we are only 4 days away from Wisconsin!

NEW EAR!!!!

Thursday at 4:00pm we had Brody's 'Big Boy ear Reveal'!! Brody thought it was going to hurt... He was so worked up he didn't care what anyone told him... He was not going to have that cup taken off. As the nurse puts it, he has a lot of anxiety!! Well after a short wrestling match... the stitches were off the cup  and the bandage was off the skin graft.... While he wanted nothing more to get out of daddy's lap and out of that room, He lunged for his momma and is desperation of him to stop crying and screaming, I said, "Hey look at your ear!" We walked in front of the mirror and mid cry-screaming, Brody stopped, and had the biggest smile on his face as he checked out his new ear!! Momma was already crying in amazement but that moment when he saw his ear for the first time was so AMAZING!! The tears were just flowing... I think the nurse had a few tears as well!! :)  

As that moment, there were so many emotions going threw my head. I was sad for Brody that he had to endure all the pain and uncomfortable Dr appointments. I was overjoyed with excitement when I saw his ear. It was a miracle all in itself. This little boy who was born without ears, now has an ear! An actual real ear!! I was in shock, I really didn't believe my eyes, It was surreal! And then when he took one look at it! It was instant gratification! :)  I'm pretty sure Daddy and Mommy had a permanent smile the whole Doctor appointment!! Rilyn was also happy to see her brothers new ear... She was clapping and saying "yeah Brody" Brody really enjoyed his sisters' excitement!!

The appointment was about 2 hours long, with the big reveal, the washing of the ear and the hair,  mom learning how to care and clean the new ear, making a new mold, Dr Renisch showing off his beautiful work to some Doctors from Holland, lots of pictures from both the Drs and Mom, lots of questions all around!

While we were there we took a quick snapshot of the ear and texted to the family. On the drive back to the house, I was reading all the replies to Brod. He couldn't get enough of what everyone had to say! (some needed to be censored a little.... :) He was laughing and smiling at their responses!!

All of these experiences are soo amazing... I don't even have words to describe them!! We are soo thankful for everyone who has supported us threw this journey in our lives! There are soo many people who care and love Brody soo much and followed this road to "Big boy ears".  Lots of love to you all!!!

DISNEY... Excited to see the new ear FINALLY!!!!!!

Disneyland. Oh my, where do I start? This place is ridiculously awesome!! I don't even know how to describe our experience! Lets just say you really use all of your senses! Walt Disney really knew what he was doing when he created Disneyland!!! The sights are incredible, all the lights and displays are awesome. The smells are so delicious they make you want to eat every single thing they have!! Even the rides have different smells that make them more desirable! The sounds of all the shows and music that are incorporated with every single ride is some thing that I can't even describe! It truely is an experience that everyone should do once in a lifetime!

Brody had an awesome time! Every time we would come back to the room he would say lets go do this, lets go do that! He was so overwhelmed by everything it was so enjoyable to see!!! He even got a little present from all his Disney friends! When we walked into the room there was a gift basket with some toys and snacks! It was adorable to see such a big smile on his face when he saw the present!  I think he smiled bigger when I told him who it was from!

Tommrow is the big day!! We get to finally see Brody's 'Big boy ear'!! Mom and Dad are very excited! I ask Brody if he is excited, and he just looks at me and says yeah and turns away! I think he knows it will hurt when they take the stitches out. Daddy has been talking to him how he needs to be strong and brave when they take the stitches out! He is a smart cookie and knows when we are trying to sugar coat  something!

Beach Bums. Heading to Anaheim today....

Sorry for the lack of writing.... to be honest.. .I  don't have much to report. No news is good news right? Brody is really doing GREAT!!! His rash-swelling in his elbow has gone down, (actually it is almost gone) and he hasn't complained at all about any pain.... :) Which is wonderful!!!! His ear cup is still stitched on and the bandage over his skin graft. Our next appointment is the 19th where they will take both off and wash his hair and his new ear!!

This last week we pretty much have not done much except walk down to the beach ( it is only like 5 blocks away from our house). We walked the beach and looked for seashells  and built sand castles.. Venice beach is a beautiful beach and I think I could make this my second home... The kids really like it too! They enjoy playing in the sand and digging for treasures!!

Today we are packing everything up and heading to Anaheim to stay at Disney Land!!! :) I'm not sure who is more excited for Cars land, Daddy or Brody? I myself am pretty excited to ride the cars racer experience!!  Miss Rilyn has a new love Minnie Mouse!! She is excited to see her! Brody wants to ride Tow Mater.... I told him I wasn't sure if we could ride him but we could get our picture taken with him... not sure he is ok with that, so we will see how that goes!! 

Enjoy a few pictures from our beach week!! :)

My little beach bums...

Digging for treasures....



Mermaid & Merman

Highlight of the week... A tractor on the beach

At the grocery store.... Brody is missing all his pumpkins
back home!! (Grandma, What you think? Should we raise our
prices?)

Sea World. G&G airport...

Monday. We ventured 3 hours to San Diego to go to Sea World. Today is the last day that Grandma & Grandpa are with us in California.  Brody and Rilyn were both very excited to see all the animals. Brody is especially into whales, sharks and dolphins. We have been reading lots of ocean books lately, so Brody was pretty amazed to see everything up close and in person. We went to all the shows we could possibly get in. Everyone enjoyed seeing all the animals! It was very neat experience for all of us. We spent all day there and got back home about 8:00pm... Needless to say it was a long day, but a fun one!!

Tuesday morning we drove G & G to the LAX airport. They were ready to get back to Wisconsin and their cows. And I think Uncle Matt was even more excited for them to be back as he is requesting his vacation now! ;)  We are very thankful for them coming out and staying with us during his surgery! It was a tremendous help!! THANK YOU! All day today Brody and Rilyn talked about G &G and asked where they went? 

This afternoon we all took naps and then went grocery shopping! We needed to restock for the week ahead. :) Brody is doing very well...  We only had one little mishap... Rilyn and him were messing around and he bumped his ear cup... Oh boy  did he feel that. He was not very happy and I think he learned his lesson! I think this was a blessing in disguise.

It is still pretty hot here, but the humidity levels have seemed to drop a lot. It is very comfortable sleeping at night. This is a major bonus for everyone. It was pretty sticky for a while!!!

Good night all!

Dolphin show

Checking out some baby sharks...

One Ocean... Pretty amazing stuff!

Brody liked seeing all these fish and the turtles...

My little surfer dude...



Brody wanted me to take a picture of his ear cup so he could
 see what it looked like, He needed to check out his stiches!

Weekend. Feeling Better...

Saturday. We had Brody's first post op appointment with Dr Renisch. It is so nice to have these very nice Drs out here, who take the time out of there busy schedules to come in on a Saturday just to see their patients. :) He did a little cleaning around and in the ear cup and made sure that everything looked good with the bandage coming off a little early. He told us that we didn't need to come in on Monday for our next appointment since we saw him today. Our next appointment is set up for the 19th at 4 pm, this is to take off the ear cup and the skin graft bandage on the back of his head, wash his hair and clean the ear... We are all very anxious to see his brand new ear. Dr Renisch told us we could come in anytime if we were concerned about anything. Brody has a little rash starting on the inside of his elbow where the IV was placed. It is starting to become very swollen and irritated. If it doesn't seem to get better the next few days we will go in and have him look at it. Just to be on the safe side.

Brody really has turned the corner for the better. He is back to his normal self with running around and fighting with his sister. The precautions this time around are to be very careful with the ear and do not bump it. He said that most of the times that it gets damaged due to sibling messing around etc... I can totally see this as the first thing he does when we get back from the appointment is start picking on his sister and they start running around and playing train! oh boy....

His swelling on his left side is really starting to come down and his incision in his groin area is seeming better. He only has a slight limp now. Still babying it a little. I would say the most pain he is having is in his elbow where the rash is starting!

The kids were getting restless in the house so we ventured down to the beach... this may have been a mistake!! lol... the Venice boardwalk in not a place for kids after 5 pm.... There is a lot going on and too much for little eyes!!! needless to say we will be doing the beach thing only before 5pm! :)

Sunday. We took a drive up the coast  to Malibu and hit up a farmers market... Very neat. Had some fresh squeezed OJ and same wonderful pastries!! The kids even found a neat little park to stroll threw. The only different between out parks back in WI is the warning signs... Beware, Rattle snakes in this area!! eeeekkkk.... (we only stayed for a little bit and were on our way!)

Thanks to all who have been thinking and praying for the little man!! He is being quite the trooper. It is funny how sweet and innocent he can be one day and the next be the little stinker pestering his sister!!  We sure can feel all the love from all of you even if we are all the in southern California!

And thanks to all of you are helping hang Brody's Pumpkin Patch flyers!! Sounds like we are getting them up all over!! :) THANK YOU!!!!

At the beach having a little fun...

Being a lizard...

Silly Girl...

First Night. Friday.

 Brody had a pretty rough night. He woke up every hour. His head was hurting him and was very thirsty! Gave him some of the chewable Tylenol and that seemed to help a little. He had to go to the bathroom very often, since he had so much fluids during his surgery.

Friday. He is very sore in his groan area as this is where there was an incision for a skin graft, having a very hard time walking. He favors it a lot and can tell it is sore since it is right in the crease of his leg. His right arm is very sore as well where the IV was placed. When he eats he eats left handed, when normally he is a righty!

We ventured out for walk as Rilyn was getting a little restless and Brody kept asking about the beach. So we packed the kids up and went for a walk down to Venice beach. It was nice to get some fresh air, well really hot and humid air, the temps where in the 90's again, but it was very pleasant right by the ocean as the breeze was blowing nicely. There are a lot of little shops and street vendors that we checked out. The kids each got large slushies' and some ice cream! It was an experience at the very least. :)

Once we were back at our hotel, most of us took naps. Again keep in mind that it is very humid and hot. All we have in our house are fans. Rilyn and I woke up very sticky, ok we woke up a little drenched!! :)

We read online that there is suppose to be this drum line that forms on Friday nights at 4 pm right on the beach. Brody is very into his bands, (Thanks to his cousin Monica!) so we thought he would enjoy listening to this. We kind of forgot about this throughout the day, but Brody reminded us about it. So this time we loaded up in the car and headed down to the beach in search for the drum line. And a search it was. We drove around looking for it, but didn't have much luck. We ended up at the Santa Monica Boardwalk. Brody's eyes were feeling very adventurous, but his body was still very sore.  We went to the grocery store and headed back home to make supper.

We no longer got done eating supper and Brody was ready to lay down. He was very hesitant to lay his head down on the pillow. I could tell he was in a lot of pain and very uncomfortable! :(
We had to call the dr at 2:25am as his bandages were slipping off his head. We took them off and have an appointment in the morning! He didn't sleep much better and neither did daddy or mommy.  But Brody woke up like a new little boy. His attitude was very much better. Hand and hand with his sister they cam outside to play. :) We have a little courtyard at our house with a fireplace, patio set, and grilling area. They kids love to play in the rocks!

Brody looks a little rough with all his battle wounds. He is very swollen on the left side of his face. His eye also swollen alot. His new ear has a large plastic mold sewn on his head and where the skin graft is, a large bandage sewn on as well.  Lots of blue lines from the surgery process.

No plans for today. Just going to meet Dr Renisch around 10am. Hoping for a little less humidity!! It sure doesn't feel like September!

Enjoying slushy's on our stroll...

Watching the birds in the ocean at the end of the boardwalk...

Playing a game on the boardwalk...

Waking up. Home.

Throughout the surgery we were updated, once that he was doing very well. This was around noon.

Then at 3:00pm the nurse came and got us to wait in the recovery room. Brody came in about 3:15pm, sleeping like a baby! so sweet with a pretty blue bandage wrapped completely around his head. It took him awhile to wake up. He woke up crying, then went back to sleep. Then he woke up crying wanting mama, so I help him and rocked him for a while, while he slept. He was so sweet and cute while he was attempting to wake up. He was very pale and thirsty when he woke up the third time. Then he wanted daddy, so he sat with daddy for a while and kind of sort of woke up. The nurse took out his IV and monitored him a while... We talked with Dr Renisch and Dr Jumper for a while and they told us that he did very well and that everything turned out good. Brody didn't have any cartilage for a tragis, so this will be a little floppy. He said that when we come back in January he will look at it and maybe try to take a piece of bone and put it in there in place of the cartilage.  He showed us  a picture of the ear. I think it looked good. I was a little emotional to take a really good look at it... Between Brody waking up crying and the thought that Brody actually had an ear.. I was thinking too much of everything that was going on, I think they were tears of joy and tears of sadness to watch my perfect baby boy lay there with nothing I can do to soothe him. But Brody does now how to cheer up his mom even when he is half asleep. He would randomly wake up and give us and the nurses a great big smile! :) He even let out a great big belch, turned and looked at me with a great big smile, and said, "Excuse me!!!" Oh man does that little boy know how to melt some hearts!!!

We left the surgery center at 4:30pm and headed back to our rental house. Brody slept the whole way home, with only a few demands! When we got home, he wanted some more apple juice and then went to sleep. He is doing really good. We are so happy that he woke up half way in a pleasant mood. Thank you to everyone who has been thinking about Brody and praying for him. He is such a brave boy and are so very proud of him!!! Dr Renisch and his staff are amazing. We are anxious for the healing stage and pray that everything goes well and heals quickly! Here is to the first night with the new big boy ear!! (Even though we haven't been able to see it, and he has a cute blue turban on his head!)

Hollywood. Venice beach. Pre-surgery night and morning.

Wednesday. Pre-surgery day. Today we all slept in and tried to catch up on some much needed sleep from our busy Tuesday. Brody and Rilyn both were a little restless in there home away from home. We decided to take a tour of Hollywood and Beverly Hills. It was very neat to see some famous places along with some celebrity homes. We saw Britney Spears house and Justin Timberlake...  We'll at least all the trees and security around them. Oh and the Osbournes house when they had there tv show. Also drove threw the famous rodeo drive, pretty fancy!!  The tour was 2.5 hours long. Brody took a little snooze and Rilyn was getting a little bored towards the end. The tour ended in front of the Chinese theater and we walked the famous Hollywood walk of fame.

Then we headed back to the house for some much needed lunch and relaxing. Upon arriving at the house... Some workers were replacing the toilet, so once again we had to share the house! Brody wanted to go to the beach, so we walked down to the beach (5 min). Brody just loves running and playing in the sand and waves of the ocean. The sound of the ocean is amazing and watching the waves is awesome. Rilyn was a little scared and would run away from the waves as they came close to her, she preferred chasing    the birds and playing in the sand. We stayed for a few hours and watched the sunset. It was beautiful and the cool breeze was amazing, mind you the temps are in the 90's and very humid!  We had a nice walk back to our house and enjoyed (Brody's choice) cheesy hot dogs and Cheetos.  We all slept good Wednesday night and had to be awake by 5 to get ready for surgery day. When I woke Brody up Thursday am to go, he was very tired and didn't want to go for surgery. :( we convinced him by bribing him with a movie on the way to the hospital and with mama sitting with him in the back.

We arrived at the specialty surgery center at 6am. Filled out all the paperwork and headed back to meet with the nurses and Drs.. Everyone was overly nice and very welcoming. Dr jumper the anestgiologist was super nice and very friendly with Brody.  Dr Renisch came out as well to say hello . Brody does not do very well with the happy juice so we talked with dr jumper and he agreed to let us go with Brody to the prep room to take the "airplane mask". This didn't go quite as planned Brody was very scared and wanted nothing to do with this mask. Plan a. Plan b, both failed so we were on to plan c. An injection of some type of sedation medicine to keep him calm so he could take the mask. My poor baby boy fought the medicine hard but once he gave in, he looked so peaceful laying there. I'm glad we were able to be with him till he feel asleep even if he was fighting it.  Then dr Renisch walked us out and told us about some places to eat and a shopping center to. Check out so we aren't sitting in the waiting room for so long. We went and ate breakfast at a a little cafe and went to the Beverly shopping center. Once again a little too fancy for this Wisconsin girl! But it was very neat to see. Picked up a few toys and books for the little man once he wakes up.

Now we are back in the waiting room. It is 12:13and we just got an update that said everything is going well! Now to wait till we can see him in the recovery room.

Surgery

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Travel day. Pre-op. House.

Tuesday. 9.3.13

We all woke up really early to be in Milwaukee at 8:40am. Aunt Christa drove us to the airport. We left bright and early at 4:30am! Our travels went very well. Grandma & Grandpa Borzick  are traveling with us which has helped tremendously in the airport scene to have some extra hands. We also have a double stroller to contain the children in which is also a huge lifesaver! The only delays in the day were while heading to the airport, I received a text from southwest that our flight was delayed a half hour, not anything to serious. Then once we got to LAX, everything was going smoothly till we got to the rental center to get our car. I received a call from the airport that said they have a car seat with our name and it and we have someone else's.... therefore we had to return to the airport and exchange the seats!! fun fun.

We couldn't check into our house till 4:00pm. So we decided to go find some lunch and check out the beach.  We did a drive by of our rental house and saw people outside with a vanity sitting outside... We were slightly nervous that we wouldn't have a sink, but once we arrived they were still working on it and assured us that it would be fixed. :) no big deal, just shared our house for a few hours.

While we were eating lunch, I received a phone call from Dr Renisch office and asked if we could do our pre-op appointment today instead of on Wednesday. Sure, it was a go with the flwo kind of day. So we went and found the Dr's  Building and had our appointment. It was nice to match all the faces with the names that we have been talking with for so many months. Everyone was very nice and friendly.  We had a nice appointment and Brody did a great job.

After we were all settled in our house, we went and got some groceries for the next few weeks. We went to a whole foods which was a very neat store. I believe that everything was organic. Lots of different foods and produce.

Once we got back to the house. Grandpa had both the kids sleeping. They were pretty well wiped after our very long day!

Today, Wednesday we will have a day all to ourselves. No Doctors. Brody wants to show grandma and grandpa the surfers. So we will have to find some surfers somewhere and go check out the beach this afternoon.

Brody's surgery is Thursday. We have to arrive at the Specialty Surgery Center at 6:00am. With surgery starting at 6:45. The surgery will be anywhere from 8-10 hours long. And then he will have his first big boy ear!! :)

Please send up some prayers for the little man for a very successful surgery and some fast healing!

For anyone who would like to help spread the word about Brody's benefit in October, by hanging up flyers; please contact Christa Van Treeck she has all the flyers and can arrange a time to get the flyers to you! Her phone number is 608.697.5434 Thanks!