3rd post op appointment

Today was our last appointment with Dr. Lewin for stage 1. Trey got his hair washed again and Dr. Lewin cleaned up his ear. The skin sheds and needs help clearing out the old skin so you can see the nice new skin underneath. The only area of concern is the lobe, the dark spot but she felt the skin looked better underneath. She thought the dark spot got bigger but I thought it looked a lot better. She was happy that the lobe was only dark in the upper part of it, as long as it isn't black at the bottom it should heal. We will have to keep adding moisture to the ear in that area for awhile until it looks better which we start that in a week. Right now we start daily cleaning of his "normal" ear where the skin graft was taken, this cleaning will help the stitches fall out as well. The ear cup was put back on and will remain on for another week, at that time we get to be the ones to wash his hair and clean the ear. We will take pictures and send them to her. After that we can use the cup if we feel it necessary but she did give us another ear cup that we can use at night to protect the ear. There doesn't seem to much to worry about but there will be work for us to keep it clean and moist. I am sure in a week I will panic because I will have forgotten everything she told us. If we lived in CA we would be having a 4th appointment with her but since we are traveling Dr. Lewin only had us stay in town for 3 follow up appointments. As for seeing the ear, it was the first time I saw Trey head on with his 2 big ears and to be honest it was a little shocking for me. It had nothing to do with how the new ear looks more that he has a big ear where he didn't have one before. I was a little taken aback by my reaction, though I know the more I see it the more it will become normal. I do miss his little ear but I know we did the best thing for him. So glad I got a lot of pictures of him before the surgery, I will always cherish his little ear and so glad I know its still there as his lobe. I think if we lost the lobe I would be crushed. The pictures of Trey's ear were taken before the cleaning, I didn't get a picture of the ear after but it looked a lot better, lots of stitches came out and the uneven color spots of the ear improved. He looks unhappy in the picture because he woke up from napping in the car and was not yet awake. One good thing was Trey got a lot happier at the end of the visit because he got to meet another young boy who just had surgery after Trey and they looked like twins with their Nike caps and ear cups on. I think it was really good for him to see another boy dressed like him. I will post more pictures of his ear once we get some.

I also wanted to write about the arm where she took the skin graft. It is still taped and bandaged, since the skin is tight because so much of it was removed.We will have to keep tape on it for about 4 months. We will keep it wrapped up for as long as possible so he won't take off the tape. I guess the reason for taping it for so long is to help keep the scaring down since the skin is pulled in tight and is pulling away from the scar.

Dressing change, glimps of new big ear

Our second post op appointment where they did a dressing change, removed stitches on the ear cup and sponge and washed his hair. Trey is such a good patient. Nothing has bothered him, while the doctor and assistant did their thing he watch Cars and ate raisins so he was happy. He got to pick out a new arm bandage since that was replaced too, he had a tough time selecting a color since he had several to pick from but in the end he went with the yellow bee wrap, surprised mommy since he loves red but I think since Dr. Lewin talked about the bee's he instinctively picked that one. The ear looks good at least Dr. Lewin told us so. She said she had no worries at this point and was pleasantly surprised to how well his little lobe was doing. She told us she was worried how his little ear would do since she had to move it so far back and she feels it looks better then she expected. Good news in the end. Trey still is wearing the cap to keep his ears a little more protected. He is doing well not touching his head except he is scratching the back of the cap a lot now so we have to watch him more. He is almost back to his old self, not getting as tired as easily but doesn't have the stamina to go all day without a nap, last part is good for mommy and daddy. We will post pictures next Monday hoping Dr. Lewin sends us the pictures she took today. It's hard to believe he has 2 big ears now and he still looks like Trey. :) Stage 2 is scheduled for December of this year. At least that will be only 4 hours and not 12.... hopefully.

Drains are OUT....

We finally got the drains out. They are not to bad to deal with but the more active he got, the more his younger brother wanted to pull on them. They look like a cool toy to a 1 year old who has no idea what he is playing with. There was absolutely no pain in the removal. We did give him regular Tylenol before we left but not sure if it was needed at all. He is eating more and more and has more energy. We took a walk as a family down by the beach, Trey wanted to ride in the stroller instead of walking which is not like him so we are not yet 100% but very close. Now we need to make sure he doesn't play to hard so keep his ear safe.

Day 2 Post Surgery

Day 2 and things are still getting better. Trey has said his arm hurts so last night he got his pain meds and he slept until 7:30am this morning. He is really shaky but I think it is a combination of not eating any real food and anesthesia. He did eat some ice cream, grapes and cheese, he still has a very low appetite but this is all to be expected. His eye is starting to swell which is expected and very normal. You can tell his energy level is slowly picking up, he is moving around more but then quickly goes back to sitting in his chair to watch a movie. We plan on keeping him inside until he starts to eat a little more which we hope will be tomorrow. So now its Disney movie marathon day 2. We bought more movies for him to watch because mommy and daddy needed some variety. So far so good, we get the drainage tubes out tomorrow and I guess that can be a tough time because it is probably the most painful of all this. I am planning on making sure he has some Tylenol in his system before the appointment. He has left his hat alone and doesn't like it when we touch it so he knows it is to be left on and this is a huge relief for us. He tried to rip off his hat and bandages during recovery and he ripped the hat of his bunny bear the nurses put on it so we were very worried. On cute quote from Trey when mommy asked him what movie he wanted this morning " I want to start with Cars" so I think he totally understands he gets to watch lots of movies today, not sure when mommy and daddy will start to ween him from the movies probably when we stop feeling bad for him.