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!