2 months post op stage 2

It has been 2 months since stage 2 and the ear is doing great. Trey is also doing great and life finally is normal, no cup, no stitches, no more surgeries at least until jaw surgery years from now. His ear is looking great, great projection and it looks like an ear. Yes the ear does not look like his natural big ear but it looks as good as i could have hoped. There is still redness where the stitches were but I know those lines will fad and the ear will even be better. The ear does grow just a bit of hair in the bowl but only mom sees it and it really isn't enough to even try and trim it. The ear still needs to be cleaned to help get rid of the dead skin cells but that is to be expected with skin grafts. His arm scar is fading and will fad more and more as time goes by to just be a thin white line. Oh just to note in the pictures Trey is drinking apple cider for New Years, daddy's idea :) The other picture is Trey with his bunny bears, notice that all the ears look the same now.

As for as the BAHA, we finally got a loaner which Trey basically wears to school only. He says he doesn't like it but is very good at wearing it at school but as soon as he is in the car he takes it off. We are not yet sure how much it helps, one draw back is that Trey gets asked about his ear because of the BAHA and he at this point doesn't like that type of attention so we are going to weight that in as well with our decision to some day go with the BAHA. But for now we will enjoy the loaner while we have it.

12 days post op pictures

post op picture

This is Trey at his one week post op appointment. The ear looks great. There was a crease in the lobe so we are taping it and using the cup again for another week in hopes to encourage the crease to go away. If it doesn't we can go back in the future when we want to for a simple fix per Dr. Lewin but we are hoping it will just heal fine. We are looking forward it to being healed up. She did do fat injections so his cheek looks as full as his right cheek and she put a few stitches to help with his small bald spot to make it smaller and less noticeable when he has a short haircut. She also tried to revise his arm scar to make it smaller as well but over all she was really happy how he healed. He isn't supposed to sleep on his ear mainly so it stays in place, he doesn't have the boney structure to keep it even with his other ear. His is due to his Hemifacial Microsomia. Thankfully he usually sleeps in his right side anyways. We love Dr. Lewin and can't say enough to how wonderful she has been. Trey loves her still and is very happy with his new ear. I have no regrets with the surgery and so thankful we were able to do it at such a young age. I will post pictures as it heals and hopefully in six months his ear will fully healed.

Stage 2 Medpor Complete

Trey is back at the hotel resting from his stage 2 medpor surgery this morning. It was a much shorter surgery. He is swollen since Dr. Lewin was able to do fat injections this time so his left cheek is swollen and his stomach bruised. He really looks like he has plastic surgery today which is what he had. Or he looks like he got into a fight with Mickey Mouse. He seems to be in a little pain but from his fat injections from his belly. We are going to stay at the hotel for a few days and maybe venture out into the world on Thursday. So glad this journey is over and his final healing is underway. I will post pictures when I can.

6 months update

It has been 6 months since Trey had his surgery. His ear is looking great, the skin color on his ear is looking more even. His arm scar is starting to fad and I don't think will be all that noticeable the older he gets. He hair has grown in except for 2 small spots but even when his hair is cut short you can't see those spots anymore.

Though we are happy with his new big ear, we are set for stage 2 Oct 26th. I am not sure all that will happen except that the lobe will be turned and raised making his new ear smaller and closer to the size that is wanted. We see Dr. Lewin again on the 25th and will know more about it then. We do know the surgery will not be as long and I am hoping Trey will bounce back from the anesthesia faster since we are hoping to spend a few days at Disneyland before our follow up appointment with Dr. Lewin. We are hoping everything goes well with stage 2 so we will be done with outer ear reconstruction. We are still waiting for Trey's loaner BAHA to come in so we will have 6 months to try it out and see if he can benefit from it. Right now he is doing well in school and learning to focus and lengthen his attention span and so far so good.

5 months post medpor

I still can't believe it has been 5 months ago that Trey got his new big ear. It took awhile to get used to seeing him with his new ear. Now I can barely remember what he looked like with his little ear. His ear continues to heal nicely the color continues to even out. The hair that was growing on it seems to have lesson to the point I don't notice it anymore which is great. We brush is with a soft baby's tooth brush to help get rid of old skin and that has worked really well. He sleeps on it with no problems. He does have a small bald spot above his ear that still doesn't have any signs of hair growing back but it seems to slowly getting smaller, his last hair cute I barely see it. His arm scar is also looking better and better. It is not as bad as I thought and I think by the time he is a teenager it should be light enough to not really notice, besides I figured he could always make up some story so all his friends would want one too. :) Trey is careful on how he takes off his shirts. He loves his new ear and if I tell him that we are going to see Dr. Lewin to help make the ear more like his other ear he just tells me that Dr. Lewin is NOT to take off his new ear. I of course assure him that no, she will definitely not be taking that ear off. I guess you can say he likes his new big ear.

As for the softband BAHA update, we still are working with a local doctor but it seems that his staff changed so helping us get Trey a BAHA has seemed to be forgotten. It has taken awhile to get the new assistant to catch up and start the process with the insurance company all over again. I am going to give it a little time and if not I will try another Dr's office.

the boys

Matthew is now 18 months old and the two boys are just so full of energy and love to play with each other. Matthew is very independent and really has little fear which isn't a good thing at this age. I thought I would post a few pictures of the 2 of them being the cute little boys they are. I especially love the picture of the boys both trying to help their dad pull one of their balloons from the ceiling fan.