First day of school....

Today was Brody's first day of Pre-K at little lambs learning center at St Johns Lutheran School. He was one brave cookie! Mom was pretty brave too. 

When Brody got home from school, we filled out a little interview questiaire for him as a keepsake. One of the questions that I asked him was, what is your favorite thin about you? He replied; MY EARS! This totally melted my heart and the tears started flowing! Our Brody boy has been threw soo much with all if his 5 surgeries, countless doctor appointments, and such. He and I both have had many tears these last few years  over these ears! But today, none of that mattered! He was very happy to have his big boy ears! Even though I questioned all the surgeries, to see him go threw it all at his young age,  I knew he did like his new ears, it just never really came out like this!  His favorite part of him was his ears!!! This was soo wonderful to hear! 

Thank you to all of you who have helped is in this journey. I wanted to share this moment with you ALL as you are all part of our big boy Brody! Love to you all! 

Aug 28th Check - Up

Aug 28th, 2014






Today was Brody's follow up appointment for his right canal, to see how the granulation tissue is and hearing test.  After a little craziness on the way to the children's hospital we were only 1 hour late for his 7:30 am appointment. Lets just say, that backed up road, not getting along with the GPS, and a little road construction wasn't helping our case.


But at last we arrived, and heard some great news! The granulation tissue has dissolved and his hearing increased 25 decibels, which is right where he was after his canal surgeries! :) This is great news.


The audiologist talked with us about possibly getting an in the ear hearing aide as brody will need to be aided once he starts school! We have not decided if we will go this route or not yet. For now Brody will have to wear his BAHA to school.


After all the appointments and craziness of the morning; we had a big surprise for Brody. We spent the afternoon at the Milwaukee Zoo! It was a perfect day to wander around checking out all the animals!

Cleaning, Hearing Test....

Today we traveled to Milwaukee for Brody's ear canal cleaning and a hearing test. Brody was a very brave boy and laid on the table all by him self for his cleaning. She cleaned a lot of debris out of the right canal and just a little in the left.  He did great!  There is an area in the right canal has granulation tissue. so she prescribed, some drops with antibodics and steroids to help it. We head back to meet with Dr Kershner in 3 weeks to check on progress. 

Then we had our next appointment for Brody's hearing test. He loves stacking the blocks,throwing the balls, and or using the pegs. Today he got to stack the pegs however he wanted and loved it. The right ear didn't score as high as the audiologist would have liked. (Maybe due to the granulation tissue) It is in the moderate hearing loss category. The left ear was right around the normal hearing level. She wants Brody to wear his ponto BAHA to make up for the hearing loss on the right side. 

She reprogrammed the ponto and let brod pick out a new single headband to wear one verses two BAHAs. She also programmed it to be FM ready if Brody needs it once he starts school.  Speaking of school, Brody will be starting 4K this September. Now we need to start figuring out the details on a FM system and how to get one.   She also said since the ENT cleaned out the right canal a lot, that it may have affected the way the hearing test turned out, so we did schedule another hearing test for September.  And discussed possibly getting an in the ear hearing aide if needed.   Here is brod with his sticker from the dr, planes fire and rescue, he was pretty excited and wants to see the movie! 

Harvest for hearing: Paying it forward. 

Save the date: October 12 & 13. 

The pumpkins are looking good  for the harvest for hearing benefit. Plans are going well. Pedal pull booked. Face painter scheduled. Corn maze has a new location, under the irrigation system, the corn is looking A-MAZE-ING!  We are currently looking for donations for our basket raffle. If you have baskets or items you wish to donate please let us know. 

Just a reminder, the benefit proceeds are going to youth in need of help with medical expenses. ( if you know of someone in need, please let us know) Also to ear community, a non -profit organization focusing on helping adults and children with hearing loss. 

Ear Cleaning....2014 Harvest.... Germaina Benefit Parade

Today we traveled to see Dr Kerschner at his New Berlin office.  Brody was scheduled for a ear canal cleaning of both ears and possibly a treatment of 'silver nitrate' for his sore inside his right canal. After his cleaning, Dr Kerschner decided it was healing on its own and that it would probably be better off if we left it alone. That if he treated it, it would probably do more harm then good. Which is great news!! Brody did awesome at his appointment, and laid on the table for the Dr all by himself. Mom was so proud of him, as this was the first time he did this willingly!!

We scheduled a hearing test for July and a follow up with Dr Kerschner. 

We then had a Brody and Mom date night at Machine Shed. Brody loves going there because he gets to play with the tractors while we wait for our food! He was such a trooper!!!

We are starting to plan this years Brody's Harvest for Hearing. We are looking for any one who would be interested in helping us organize and plan this years event. We were very fortunate that our Pumpkin Patch & Hayride event has been so successful over the past few years, that we have raised all the funds for Brody and are excited to PAY IT FORWARD to other children in need. If anyone knows of any area children in need of help with medical bills please let us know. We are working on a form, but I think work of mouth is best. Please watch our website as well as facebook to stay up to date for details!

Also wanted to mention that this weekend, April 26 will be the Germania Benefit Parade (1:00pm) and FOOD! This is a great organization which helps people in Marquette County who need help with medical bills. They were very generous to Brody during our fundraising process. If you have some spare time, stop out and support a great cause, they have food, bake sale, silent & live auction and much more! And Brody will be the grand marshal in the parade this year!! :)

Chicago, 1 Year

Tomorrow, Saturday, we will be heading to Chicago to meet with Dr Reinisch.  We are excited to see him and see how he thinks the ear is healing. Since our last appointment with Dr Pawar, Brody has had another sore in his canal where his mold was rubbing. We emailed our Dr some photos and he thought it could wait till we meet him this Saturday.  We're glad that it isn't an urgent matter and over the past few weeks, it has seemed to be healing on its own.

It will be a long travel day, but we will take it over traveling to Beverly Hills!

I've added a collage of before and after photos of Brody's left ear. April 4th marked one year since we started Brod's journey towards his big boy ears!

Dr Pawar... Removing the mold....

The above photo is of Brody and his doctor, Dr Pawar. (He is looking into beginning the Medpor surgery in Milwaukee.) This is the same doctor that visited Dr Renisch a few weeks before Brody's last surgery to learn the procedure. Dr Renisch recommended Dr Pawar to us for Brody's post-op care.  He was very nice and was wonderful with Brody. Brody wasn't looking forward to this day since he woke up from surgery and saw he had a mold on his ear. But he took it in stride, and did VERY WELL!

We were excited to see the ear with the new skin grafts as we haven't been able to see them yet. To be honest it was very hard to even tell there were any skin grafts as they blended right into the ear. They looked amazing! I believe we heard the comment, "We don't usually see medpor ears that look this good!" Kudos to Dr Renisch for doing such an amazing job on both of Brod's ears!! :)

Brody did such a great job that he got a surprise semi from the nurses and he got to go to the store and pick out a special toy! Dr Pawar then took photos of body's ears and sent them to Dr Renisch out in California. We are waiting to hear how he thinks the ear looks. And what to do for post-op care, so far he is to have a special cream on the skin grafts  and wear the mold for 2.5 months.

Jake the pirate..... Heading home

Once we got settled back into the hotel after brods surgery he was a eating and drinking machine.  He watched cartoons and was ready to go to target to pick out his toy! We then went to target to get his toy and some strawberry milk! Brod had in mind that he wanted Legos like he say in a magazine on the airplane, but once he saw the jake and the Neverland pirate toys he couldn't resist. Oh did I forget we have a boy named jake flying back with us? ;) pictures to come soon.  Over all brod was surprisingly very awake and ready to go anywhere but the hotel. Even though he was a little wobbly, he felt really well.

Brody did very well during the night. Only waking up once for a drink. When he woke up for the day he was ready to rock and roll. He wanted to go to park, zoo, museum, anywhere. Since his post op appointment wasn't till 11am. We decided to go for a walk. So jake and mom and dad headed down melrose ave to see if we could spot any celebrities. We didn't have much luck, but a few days prior dad did see Ellen Degeneris in her porch driving on melrose ave when we were at a stop light.

Then we headed to our appointment with Dr Renisch. They cleaned up the left ear as this was the one that they took the skin graft from and fixed the ear lobe. We still need to make arrangements for taking the mold off in a week once we get home. And also set a date with dr Renisch for April to meet up with him in Chicago.

Our plane takes off from LAX at 6:50am and we will be headed back to Wisconsin.

Thanks again for everyone's kind words and prayers. We are hoping for better luck this time around with the healing process. Night all!

Waking up.... Back to hotel

We were able to go into the recovery room at 11:30. They gave us our pep talk and brod come in sleeping at 11:45. He took a little bit to wake up, and woke up crying so they gave him some medicine in his IV to go back to sleep.  Dr Renisch came in and talked to us. They ended up cleaning the both areas really well . The top sore seemed like the medpor was exposed at one point, so they cleaned it up and stiched it closed, with a tiny skin graft on top. The other area was basically the same, they cleaned it up and put a small skin graft over the top.   They cleaned up the left ear tragis and the old skin graft.  The left ear lobe was starting to pull up a little so they fixed that as well.   I tell you they are miracle workers. :)

Brody was sleeping very well, the nurse had to wake him up. He woke up very mellow and calm. A experience we are not used too, as usually it is very unpleasant.  But he did good and smiled a lot! We know the man upstairs had something to do with that, as pre-op was a tad stressful, he knew we needed a little break. We left the hospital at 1:30 and had to stop at the pharmacy to stop and get his prescription. The nurse gave us strict instructions to give him only water and soda crackers.  Once we got back to the hotel Brody was hungry.  He ate some white cheddar cheese-it's and apple juice. 5 minutes later he wanted ice cream! Yikes.... Needless to say he is feeling very well. (Don't tell brods nurse!)

He has a blue ear mold sewn on again and we will need to have it taken off in  a week. Dr Renisch is calling in a favor him one of his colleagues in Milwaukee. He came to visit dr Renisch a while ago to learn the procedure. He is hoping this dr will be able to fit us into his schedule and take the mold off. We have a post op appointment tomorrow to finalize all the at home details.

Just wanted to update everyone, that Brody is one brave little boy and did awesome! Thank you all for the extra prayers and kind words! :)

Surgery day...

Surgery day is forever the most dreaded day for brod. We try not to talk about it since it always brings tears to his eyes.  This time around our time of arrival was 8am. This is a lot later then most. We do like the early ones better as we don't have to worry about him being hungry and thirsty since he can't hAve anything 3 hours or so before surgery.    We have also found out that having a later surgery start time makes the pre-op room very busy and hectic. We didn't get called back till 9:00am. Then we had to go through our normal hatred for the sleepy medicine and after the fight ended with a shot to make him very very sleepy! Even though this proces is far from perfect. At least he wasn't kicking and screaming when we left him! We left the pre-op room about 9:40. The surgery should be anywhere from an hour to 2 hours.  Hopefully he will wake up better then most times since it is a short surgery! 

Thanks to everyone for your support! We and especially brod needs it! We greatly appreciate all the thoughts and prayers! :) 

Appointment.... Surgery tomorrow

Today was primary traveling from 3am Wisconsin time till 1:pm California time. The airplane ride seems longer and longer every time we travel, this one being our tenth one. But we made it, even through airport security with James not having his ID. I even got to drive for the first time out here and it wasn't pretty, Brody even told me I was a crazy driver! At least the car was still in one piece! ;)

Once we arrived we stopped at McDonald's and ate lunch and let Brody play in the play place for a while.  We checked into our hotel, le parc suites in Beverly Hills. We weren't sure what to expect as we received a few hotel suggestions from a friend and they were all booked so the booking company lead us here. She explained the room in detail and said it was an older hotel in the  residential area. We thought we would try it, since it was the cheapest we could get. And we are very impressed, the rooms are defiantly older but it has a very homey feel and are very clean and updated furniture! I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone traveling to Beverly Hills.

Our appointment with dr Renisch was at 4:45pm. Both him and Francesca looked at brods ear and determined that it will probably need to be cleaned up very well and possibly do the flap of skin replacement. It was hard to tell if both layers of skin were not viable or just the one.  They will take him in surgery at 9am and see what they can do.  We aren't sure what happened to make the skin not heal, but are glad to get here and have them look at it and fix it. It is better then jeopardizing the whole medpor. They said the surgery will only be a couple hours. Brody isn't really looking forward to this but he said he would be a trooper and take the "airplane" mask.  This is the hardest part for him, he doesn't like to drink the sleepy medicine and everything else is not very pleasant. We could use some extra prayers for our little man tomorrow. He has been through 4 surgeries and this is his 5th. He is such a brave little guy. But we ALL are ready to take a break from these surgeries!

Thank you too everyone who has been following brods journey. We are hoping the end is in sight very soon! :)

Heading back to CA... Possibly Surgery #5

It looks like we will be heading back to California on Monday. Brody has had a sore on the top of his ear for a while now, that hasn't been healing. The sore started as one of his stiches was embedded in the skin. He has had it for a couple weeks now. I've been sending pictures to the Doctor ever since we have gotten home with updates. When I sent the photos on Thursday, Dr Renisch called and said he wants to see Brody and look at the ear to fix it. Not only is there the sore on top that isn't healing, but there in also another area that is starting to get a hole. We  made appointments for Monday the 24th, and surgery for the 25th. He said he will probably have to fix it with surgery of cleaning and washing the affected areas as well as doing another skin graft to replace the skin that isn't healing. Hopefully this will prevent the ear from getting an infection. It isn't infected as of now.

 

I knew deep down that we would have to go back someday, I just didn't think it would be this soon. We are kind of disappointed that we need to head back so soon, but at the same time we are relieved that Brody is in GREAT hands and will get answers to why it isn't healing.  Dr Renisch is such a great Dr and is the best out there.  :)  (Just wish we all were a little closer)

 

When I first told Brody we needed to go back to California he was very excited as he thought that we would be taking his cousin Haiden to Disney. Then I had to break the news that we needed to go and see Dr Renisch to have him check out his ear, Brod really was not impressed and shed a few tears. I then had to talk it up, and tell him this was a special trip where it was going to be just Mom, Dad, & him. Then he felt a little better. He did ask if we could go to Disney, and had to sell him on a park instead. I'm really hoping that we will get there and he will tell us that Brod doesn't need surgery and have a different solution, just so Brody doesn't have to go threw another surgery. :(

 

So for now, life will be on hold for the Henke's as we will be heading back to Beverly Hills for the week.  Please say some prayers for the little man!

Last 2 DR appointments... Home

Thursday was Brody's  big appointment where they removed the mold that has been on his ear for two weeks and the bandage over his skin graft site. Brody did very well. He is pretty much done with anything or anyone who is in a doctors uniform or in the nurse uniform. He had to have the stitches taken out of the mold as well as the skin graft bandage. This is slightly painful. As any of you know who has ever had stitches. After all the tears and holding Brody down to remove everything. The nurse showed Brody his new ear in a mirror. He had an instant smile and stop crying for about two seconds and then resumed crying and said it hurt. which I'm sure it was a little sore. Once again Brody got to show off his new ear to another child who had surgery a few days before. I think it helps when he sees other kids who've had surgery just like him. He is quite the trooper. 

Dr. Reinisch said his ear looked good as well as his tragus. It has a lot of swelling already and Will take up to a year for the swelling to completely go away.  We said our goodbyes and thank you's and Brody and the Rilyn  both left happy with lots of candy. 

We then left on our descent to Palo Alto. It took us six hours to drive there. We were lucky the kids watched movies the whole time and we only had to have one potty break. We arrived in Palo Alto at 10:15 PM. It was definitely a long day.

Today. Friday. We relaxed all morning and then had Brody's next appointment at 1 PM with Dr. Balacker. Dr. Robison was out of the office today. Dr. Balacker checked out Brody's  canals and cleaned his right canal with some debris. He did really good and we celebrated with a cupcake and a very sweet card from everyone at the doctor Roberson's office.  The card was very sweet and left mom with only a few tears.  It was bittersweet.

After his appointment we went to a park and played for a few hours and let the kids run around and enjoy the fresh air befor heading back to Wisconsin where we hear it's very cold. 

This time around it seems easier because we know what to expect. Brody even seems more comfortable with his second ear, almost too comfortable. He still likes to play rough with his toys & with Rilyn so we really need to keep on him about being careful so he doesn't bump his new ear as it takes a good four months to heal completely. It is pretty surreal looking at him and seeing two ears, He is one handsome dude. He is pretty excited to show off his new ear to all his friends. 

We ended the day playing basketball of course. the sunny vale hotel that we stay at, have a outside basketball court that the kids really enjoy playing at.  

Sunday morning very early we leave Out of SFO and head back to MKE. We are all ready to go back home even if it's -20° out. 

Bye - Bye Dinos... sponge. Beach

Monday was our appointment to get his green dinosaur bandage off. This appointment went very well. Brody was thinking that it was the appointment where all the stiches come out so he was a little hesitant, once he realized it was just the wrap coming off it well smoothly. They needed to take out some cotton that was in the canal which was a little tricky as it was dried on pretty good.  Brody felt like a million bucks after this appointment, no stiches taken out and his big heavy wrap came off.

The next few days we have been pretty laid back... just relaxing and hanging out at the beach (our home away from home). The weather has been very nice... 70's and into the lower 80's. James even has some nice raccoon eyes to prove the sun is very nice.

On Tuesday night, Brod and I were cuddling on the couch and I was checking out his new tragus on his left ear and I noticed  something still in his ear canal. It was a sponge which the Doctor uses to help prevent the canal from swelling during surgery. The assistant which took the wrap off, just simply forgot to take the sponge out. I called to see if this needed to come out right away or if it could wait till next Thursday when we have out next appointment. She said it needs to come out and that we could just simply take a tweezers and pull the sponge out... well this is defiantly easy for a professional to say. We did attempt this 'easy' task it did not go so well. I have a phone call into the office to see when we can come in and have it removed... :) hopefully today or Friday.

Next Thursday is our big appointment where the ear mold comes off and all the stiches come out. We are getting very excited to see Brod's second ear!! :)

Off to the park today for the kids to run around and soak up the sun!

 

Here are some pics of the beach. This is Brody's new dew rag that he gets to sport. It has some cool NBA clips on it. (Uncle Matt would be proud of the official basketball gear)

Weekend. Beach. Feeling better.

Friday evening Brody was very quiet and still very much out of it. We noticed a rash on the back of his neck and down his back. He didn't have a fever at the time. We called the dr to inform him of the rash, he said it was probably just a reaction to the soap they used at the hospital. This was a relief as we were nervous for infection around the ear. Later that night Brody was very warm and still very sleepy. He was starting a very low-grade temperature.  Thankfully it went away. Saturday he was starting to feel a little better and really wanted to get out of the house. So we decided to go to the aquarium in Long Beach. The kids enjoyed checking out all of the different sea creatures. It's must have wore him out he fell asleep as soon as we got back in my car.  Once we got back to our house he was still pretty quiet and went to sleep. Sunday morning he woke up back to himself. He was playing with all his toys and fighting with his sister.  We decided in the afternoon to go hang out at the beach for a while and let the kids run around in the sand.

 Monday we go see Dr. Reinisch again and get Brodys green dinosaur bandage off. Hopefully this let's him feel a lot better and back to himself. 

Waking up and day after surgery

At about 4:30pm yesterday Brody was out of surgery and in recovery.  He woke up a little cranky and dazed but for the fourth surgery we knew what to expect as we are all too familiar with surgery day.  He was thirsty so we gave him some apple juice (think he had 5 glasses) and Dr. Renisch found a Popsicle for Brody which put a little smile on his face.  We talked with Dr. Renisch to see how everything went, and saw a picture of his new ear before he put the cup and bandage on. It looked GREAT!

 The first ear surgery Brody didn't have enough  cartilage in his little ear to make a Tragus (little bump on your ear that covers the ear canal) nor did he have enough on the second ear, so we met with Dr. Renisch before he took Brody into surgery, and he said he could take a little cartilage from his rib to make the tragus for both ears. we gave him the ok to take the cartilage from his rib, and from the pic he showed us after surgery looked like it turned out very nicely.  Brody was very tired but doing good and said many times he wanted to go "home" so the nurse took out his IV and all the other monitors he was hooked up to,  We got him dressed and headed back to the house, where Brody pretty much went straight to bed, as did mom and dad as it was a very long day.

Today, the day after surgery Brody is pretty sore and tired yet (especially near the incision where he took the cartilage from his rib).  We are hanging out at the house and resting which we all need.  Rilyn is helping out today as well, getting stuff for Brody and being such a good little sister, she also says she wants a bandage on her head just like her big brother :)  We also said good bye this morning to Brody's cousins Jack and Emma, and Aunt Amanda and Uncle Joe as they head to Disneyland for a weekend of family fun.  We want to Thank them for coming out and helping us, and for watching Rilyn while we went to appointments and Surgery yesterday!  It was a great distraction for Brody as he loves playing with his cousins and he was sad when he woke up and seen they had left.

We are planning on going out for a walk today to get some fresh air, and Brody wants to head to an aquarium,so hopefully he feels up to it and will be able to go this weekend.  

Surgery update.

We just recieved a call from the nurse that Brody should be out of surgery at 4pm.  Then we get to see him once he is in recovery.  It was nice to have updates every hour. I will spare you all the detailed step by step of the procedure! ;)

Can't wait to see the little guy!

Surgery day.

We arrived at 6 am and we're checked in right away.  Brody did pretty well. He was very hesitate about everything we did. The anestigiologist was very good with Brody. He wanted brod to drink the medicine , which we knew wasn't going to happen. He then ended up giving him a nasal injection instead of drinking the medicine. This was the quickest way since we have a fighter on our hands.  Now mind you Brody is a  'gagger' he was not impressed with the medicine since it has a few side effects; burning of the nose and bad aftertaste. He did pretty well and only puked twice with the very little bit that was in his stomach! Poor little man! Then we finally got him calmed down and watched curious George! The simple joy of cartoons!  He went out like a pro though, hardly any tears! He went into surgery about 8 am and I just got an update from the nurse at  9:15 that dr renisch was just starting to operate. Should be about 8 hours from now and we can see him in recovery room. 

Here's a pic of the little man after his medicine and watching his cartoons! 

Beverly Hills. Pre-op.

We flew out of Milwaukee (-18 degree weather) on Tuesday 1-7-14 and arrived in LA to 72 degree weather. It was quite the improvement from Wisconsin. :)  Wednesday (Today) we had Brody's pre-op appointment with Dr Renisch. He checked out Brody's ear and said it looked GREAT!  He got his before pics taken and we got to see a comparison with his before and after with his last surgery! It was pretty awesome to see. Brody did very well at the appointment with much hesitation with his upcoming surgery tomorrow, he is dreading the medicine and mask. We also discussed some options for Brody's Tragis. He didn't have enough cartilage for him to make a tragis the first time around, so this time he is going to take a very tiny piece of bone from his skull and use that as a tragis for both ears. I'm a little nervous as how Brody will do with the healing part as he will have bandages on both ears when he wakes up.  We ended the appointment with candy for Dr Renisch and Brody got to pick out what bandage he gets to wear after surgery. Green with dinosaurs. :) He will be styling now!

Brody is pretty lucky to have his cousins Jack and Emma with us, which is a great distraction. Mom and Dad are pretty lucky to have James' sister (Amanda & Joe) staying with us for  a few days to help out with Rilyn while we have appointments and surgery day! :) THANK YOU!!

Following his appointment we did our annual trip to the toy store for Brody to pick out a toy (a little bribe we do for him to behave at his appointment and incentive for surgery day). He picked out some cars toys from the Disney movie, cars. The kids played in the afternoon and then we went for a drive. We ended the evening at the Santa Monica Pier with a few rides and a stroll down the pier.

We need to arrive at Cedars Cinai Hospital Thursday morning at 6:00am with the scheduled surgery start time of 7:15am. The surgery usually is about 8 hours long. Please send up some extra prayers for the little man that all goes well. We know he is in good hands all around!

Negative 18 degrees

We are headed to MKE and hoping on a jet plane for our 2nd big boy ear! :) wish us luck! If everything is on time we should be in California by 11:30am. (1:30pm Wisconsin time)