Clouds, smores, and the big #6....

Yesterday was our travel day. Left at 5am and flew from MKE to SAn Francisco. It was a nice 4 hour flight with some great views from the plane. Brody was looking for our house/grandma & grandpa house so he could wave to Rilyn but had no luck. ✈️

Once we arrived we ate lunch at one of our favorite sandwichs spots, simply sandwiches, and checked into our hotel. Then we had our pre-op appointment and hearing tests at the California Ear Institute. Dr Roberson confirmed the weeping skin inside the right canal. We had been communicating throw Skype and emails, but it is really hard to take photos of the inside of an ear canal! 

Our hotel hosts a nightly mixer and was a perfect way to end our first day in California. we roasted marshmallows and enjoyed smores with a nice cold beverage. 

Thursday morning we were scheduled for surgery at 10am and ended up going back at 11am.  Brody dreads surgery day. I can't blame him since he has 5 surgeries under his belt already! It was a rough week prior as he is older and knows exactly what to expect. 

This morning I was watching my little man sleep and was reading some texts and good luck posts from my sister and sister-in-law, and was thinking about how much it means to me to have such a great support system of family and friends. How awesome would it be to have Brody see this first hand too. So this leads to a favor I have to ask you. If you have a spare moment, please send Brody a  get well, thinking of you, or simply some encouraging words in a card. He loves getting mail, and will be nice for him to get back home and have some cards waiting for him! 😊 w4146 12th Rd, Montello WI 53949

Surgery: Brody wasn't so cooperative going into surgery, but did great once he had some medicine to ease him and start to veg out. Dr Roberson did exactly what he thought and then some. The surgery was just under 2 hours. The Dr ended up replaceing his prosesis on his right side with a little bit longer rod to attach to the ear drum. The weeping skin which we could see from the outside was causing the skin to get inflamed and was pulling the ear dum away from the prosthesis. They then replaced that skin and put a new ear drum in. It was a little more then they had anticipated but will hopefully heal well and get much improved hearing results, just as good or better then the left side. They also went in to the left canal and cleaned it up, as he had some debris directly on the ear drum. Dr Roberson said this cleaning should help with the high frequencies as he was having decreased hearing in that ear as well. Brody slept for 1.5 hours in the recovery room and was very tired waking up. Once we left the surgery center, he slept in the car on the way back to the hotel. He ate some food and then went back to bed. 

Purple is the color of royalty. They choose purple for all their patients because each and everyone is treated like royalty! We love Dr Roberson and all his staff. They do take the very best care of our baby! 

Thank you to all who have prayed for, called, texted, and thought of Brody during his surgery. God is great! We  still have 4 weeks to see what the final result is, but please continue to pray for him as he needs to heal and be still(no running, jumping, swimming, etc.). 

Granulation Tissue... Hearing Aids.... California....

Hi all. Hope all of our Brody followers are having a great Summer?


Brody enjoyed his first year of pre-school, making many new friends and getting used to the whole new school thing.  Brody wore his hearing aide (BAHA) everyday that he went to school and had no hearing issues. His teacher said he did great! As the school year went on, it was harder and harder for me to get Brody to wear his BAHA as it was uncomfortable and hot as we got into the warmer months.


Throughout the school year we headed to Milwaukee for Doctors appointments 3 times. Normally we would have only headed to Milwaukee every 6 months, but we were battling the Granulation tissue. The one that I mentioned had gone away last September, well it has been repeatedly coming back and we think it affects his hearing each time. The ENT prescribes drops to help dissolve the tissue but for some reason it keeps coming back. One thought is that the canal is not getting a chance to dry out, leaving moisture in there. We tried solving this with the use of ear plugs whenever Brody goes in water, but this didn't seem to work. It is hard to figure out what is causing the tissue to grow. Brody has a lot of debris in the right canal when we go for our cleanings, we decided that something needs to change.  Especially since his canal gets cleaned every 3 months and that is still not enough as all the granulation tissue keeps growing and his hearing is decreasing as we get farther down the road.


We had decided that we are going to try a traditional hearing aid in his left ear as this is the canal that is very healthy. Brody needs to have some sort of hearing aid as his hearing as decreased well below normal hearing. We ordered the hearing aide at his last appointment and we will be going next week to get fitted. We are hoping this will aide him enough to get him up to normal hearing. 


After we decided to get the aide, we consulted with Dr Roberson's team in California and discussed what was going on with Brody and about his hearing loss. We have decided to head back out to California and fix this issue we are having with the canal. During this next surgery, they are tentatively going to reline his canal with new skin to get rid of whatever is making the granulation tissue keep growing. And they are also going to look at his prosthesis in his right ear as after looking at his audiograms, they think the prosthesis may have shifted or something, which may also be the reason for the hearing decrease. This surgery will tentatively last only 1-2 hours.  He will have to have a skin graft on his head again and will need to stay still for 4 weeks following surgery and no water.  OF course all these things are tentative as the Doctor is only going from what we tell him and Brody's records from the hospital here. Once we get there and they do a pre-op this may all change. 


As much as we don't want Brody to have to go threw another surgery, we feel that this is the right thing to do and will be best for long term care and hopefully increase his hearing. (our main goal since day 1) Brody also doesn't want to have this surgery as he knows all to well what it entails. :(
I am hoping this is the last one (as we did 2 surgeries ago) We will be flying out on July 22 and be out there for 10 days. 


Please say a few extras prayers for our family, but especially our Brody boy as he is the one who has to go through  his 6th surgery in his 5 years of life. 


God has a perfect plan for us. He never does it all at once; just step by step to teach us to Walk by FAITH not by sight.

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!